5 Reasons Why Boston Bruins Have Remained Elite After Playoff Disaster vs. Florida

Sometimes, in life, two things can be true.

The 2022-23 Florida Panthers started off slowly, went on an absolute tear post-All Star Game, squeezed into a No. 8 playoff seed and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. They were a better team than the first half of last season suggested.

The 2022-23 Boston Bruins started their regular season historically good—and didn't stop being historically good—until they fell to those Panthers in a baffling-at-the-time Round 1 collapse that lacked heart and adversity-handling.

They were missing the postseason magic many assumed would extend at least past the first round. You can't totally dismiss an historic regular season (and they're proving that now), but those Bruins were at least a slightly worse team than their seemingly easy, breezy regular season suggested.

In retrospect, the matchup was significantly more even than we gave the Panthers credit for then, a drum Matthew Tkachuk had been beating the entire time.

This season, they're both picking up where they left off, with the Bruins No. 1 in the Atlantic Division at 13-1-3 and somehow just as good as last regular season, and the Panthers at No. 2 in the Atlantic Division with a steady 12-5-1 record.

Many expected the Bruins to take a big step back this season, after the seven-game collapse and the departures of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi and others, but they've clearly remained elite. As Boston and Florida face off on TNT Wednesday, here are five reasons the Bruins are somehow still at the top of the standings.

Many called for trading reigning Vezina Trophy champion Linus Ullmark and his $4 million average annual value to relieve some of the Bruins' cap troubles as they searched for two top centers with virtually no money in the offseason. The team decided to stand pat with the best goalie tandem in the league despite the emergence of Jeremy Swayman, which was the right decision.

The Bruins netminders are close on and off the ice, and their successes feed off each other. Combined, they have given the Bruins the fewest goals against in the league, averaging 2.18 per game. Their combined save percentage, .931, is also good for best in the league.

Swayman has stolen the show early this season with a 7-0-2 record, 2.09 goals against average (No. 5 in the league) and a .933 save percentage (No. 3 in the league, with at least three more games played than No. 1 and No. 2). According to MoneyPuck, Swayman is No. 5 in the league with 7.6 goals saved above expected.

Just because Swayman has started off strong doesn't mean Ullmark isn't putting together a season for himself, though. He's got a 6-1-1 record, 2.23 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. He ranks 12th with 4.4 goals saved above expected.

What does this teach us all? That having two elite goalies can be just as impactful as having two elite centers, so don't fix what ain't broke.

I regret to inform the rest of the NHL that David Pastrnak is still David Pastrnak, and in fact the pasta is as al dente as ever.

The 27-year-old winger is solidifying his star status in the first season of his eight-year, $90 million contract. He's leading the Bruins in scoring with 12 goals (only three of which have come on the power play) and 29 points with a plus-11 rating through 17 games. He's averaging 19:08 time on ice on the first line alongside Pavel Zacha and captain Brad Marchand.

He's tied with J.T. Miller for second in the entire league with 29 points, and his plus/minus is tied for eighth.

We could try to complicate the reasons for the Bruins' success, but it honestly boils down to some simple truths: Your best players have to be your best players, your big contracts have to live up to the dollar amount, and your supporting cast needs to be at least decent. So far this season, Pastrnak has knocked the first two out of the park for the Bruins.

As franchise legends Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both retired and took their modest cap hits with them last offseason, the world turned to one man to save the Bruins: 19-year-old Matthew Poitras. Just kidding, and if any Bruins fan tries to tell you they saw the rookie's emergence coming in the offseason, don't trust them.

Poitras' great training camp turned into staying with the team for a few games as management decided whether to send him back to junior. He ultimately won the role of third-line center for the NHL club, slotting in nicely to alleviate the holes left by Bergeron and Krejci as the lineup needed to shuffle.

Poitras has four goals, eight points, a plus-three rating and only four penalty minutes through his first 17 NHL games. He's cooled off a bit, sure, but he's tied for fifth in rookie scoring with his eight points, and he's doing it in significantly less time on ice than most above him (he's averaging 14:38 TOI compared to Connor Bedard's 19:35, for example).

Poitras is obviously cheap on his entry-level contract, he's holding it down on the third line in between a struggling Jake DeBrusk and PTO graduate Danton Heinen, and he's chipping in with scoring. He's been exactly what the Bruins hoped they'd miraculously find on the market last offseason with approximately one dollar and two top-center holes to fill.

Perhaps Pavel Zacha has struggled to live up to the high draft selection the Devils took him at (No. 6 in 2015), but that doesn't mean he's ever been a bad player, and our minds can play tricks on us sometimes in equating these two things.

Zacha stepped up fine while Bergeron was dealing with injury last season, and he's once again doing fine reprising the role of first-line center for these Bruins. He's got seven goals, 14 points and a plus-seven rating in 17 games, averaging 19:18 TOI alongside Pastrnak and Marchand. He's a decent 50 percent at the faceoff dot, and the Bruins are outscoring opponents 14-5 at even strength when he's on the ice.

Then you've got Charlie Coyle, who is reminding us that he's generally played at a top-six level at previous stops in his career. He's No. 3 on the team in scoring with six goals (including a hat trick) and 15 points in 17 games. Coyle and James van Riemsdyk have managed to bring out the best in each other, which has obviously been crucial for a team that needed to make value deals and count on in-house depth (Trent Frederic is to Coyle's right on the second line right now).

Maybe these two were fine choices for the Bruins' top six all along.

What if I told you that Boston Bruin James van Riemsdyk's got five goals, 13 points and a plus-four rating in 17 games in 2023-24? What if I told you the man is thriving on the second line and on the first power-play unit, at 34 years old on his one-year, $1 million contract with the Bruins? He's had a fantastic resurgence alongside Coyle.

The Bruins also reunited with old friend Danton Heinen, who has slotted in well on the third line after joining the team on a PTO earlier this season and then signing a one-year, $775,000 contract.

They've got veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk on a $1.05 million cap hit and serviceable center Morgan Geekie on a $2 million cap hit. Moreover, the coaching staff is using all of these depth pieces right.

You don't want to rely on streaky Heinen to score a million goals, but his two-way game is underrated and you know he can hold his own and eat up some minutes. You don't want to put Shattenkirk out there every game or make him play too much, but if you choose your battles, he provides an interesting veteran presence. You put van Riemsdyk in a position to succeed and score, and he's still got it.

Salary-cap information via CapFriendly unless otherwise noted.