Boston Bruins: Comparing and Contrasting November 2011 to November 2008

With one game remaining before the calendar morphs, the Boston Bruins are already assured of at least as fruitful a November this year as the one they had in 2008.

These Bruins shall enter Wednesday night’s visit to Toronto at 11-0-1 this month. As seven current team members―Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Tim Thomas and Shawn Thornton―might fondly recall, they finished the month of November 2008 at 11-1-1.

If, hypothetically, they were to brook a 3-0 stinker at the Air Canada Centre, the Bruins would wrap up November 2011 with both a record (11-1-1) and a cumulative scoring differential (51-24) identical to that of November 2008.

Almost any other eventuality, however, would make this particular November at least slightly better than its predecessor from three years ago.

Or would it? While the primary statistics are about as identical as they get, the impact this particular month has had on the 2008-09 Bruins versus the 2011-12 Bruins bear stark differences.

And even when those contrasts are laid out and sized up, deciphering the more meaningful month is tougher than shopping for a finicky loved one at Christmastime.

The last time the Bruins went nuclear in November, not even the most hopeful New England puckheads could envision it or refrain from waiting for the other skate to drop.

Back then, sure, head coach Claude Julien’s first season in Boston amounted to a refreshing playoff berth and a surprise first-round arm-wrestling series with mighty Montreal. But the subsequent autumn, rooters and writers were divided as to which direction the Bruins’ baby steps would take them next. The world-class staff at The Hockey News, for one, picked them to finish two spots shy of a 2009 playoff berth.

By the end of October 2008, Boston was 5-3-3 and sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. It was still early and they could still go either way.

But starting with a caffeinated, 5-1 victory over Dallas and ending with a 4-1 triumph over the defending champions from Detroit, the Bruins spent the next month pole-vaulting into first place. They stayed there until the final horn of the regular season on April 12.

Theoretically, they didn’t need to do that so soon. Another steady stride ahead, possibly into contention for home ice in the first round, might have sufficed for the majority of their fans and for themselves.

Then again, within that preceding year, all of the professional athletic neighbors had finished first in their leagues and reached the final frontier of their playoffs, with the Red Sox and Celtics both claiming a world championship. The Bruins had no other choice if they wanted to attain long-lasting respectability.

This year, sure, they had finally gotten in on Boston’s habitual use of Duck Boats for celebrations of sports supremacy. But once the partying tapered off (perhaps a tad later than advisable), the hangover took a greater toll on their performance and transcript than most any observer could have anticipated.

By the end of October 2011, Boston was 3-7-0, off to its first losing start in Julien’s five-year reign and sitting in fifth place in the Northeast Division and dead last in the conference. Meanwhile, one astute researcher from Hockey Buzz noted just how arduous it now is for an NHL team to climb over the playoff poverty line after Halloween.

But starting with a grittily executed, 5-3 seesaw victory over Ottawa and continuing through another come-from-behind victory against Winnipeg, the defending champion Bruins have sprinted into first place in their division.

They were second only to Pittsburgh in their conference after topping the Jets on Saturday and while Toronto surpassed them with a win on Sunday, the Bruins have two games in hand.

Theoretically, they didn’t need to do quite so much in such a hurry. Just getting back into the playoff picture in relatively quick fashion likely would have propitiated their fan base.

Then again, with two Northeast Division titles in the last three years and a newly installed Stanley Cup banner, the swiftest possible redress was the most ideal.

The Bruins’ November of three years ago set their tone as genuinely capable and genuinely hungry Cup contenders, asserting that 2007-08 was not enough.

This time around, they have emphatically pressed down on the contenders’ reset button without letting go, rinsing out the October vinegar and proclaiming their lack of satisfaction with just 2010-11.