Boston Bruins: 6 players who could reach milestones in 2019

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Several Boston Bruins players could reach significant milestones this season.

The Boston Bruins have a veteran-laden team, which means many players can reach significant milestones heading into the 2019-20 season.

Coming off of a season in which they lost in the Stanley Cup Final, many Bruins players will be hungry to get back there as soon as possible. Heading into this 2019-20 season let’s look at the possible milestones some of the players on the Bruins can reach.

Patrice Bergeron

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Being on what is considered the best line in hockey can help you rack up points really quickly. For a veteran player like Patrice Bergeron, who has been in the league a long time, there are quite a few milestones he could reach this season.

He is eight assists away from reaching 500 career assists. Bergeron is also 86 points away from becoming the fourth highest-scoring Bruins player of all-time. Bergeron would be passing the legendary Bobby Orr who sits fifth with 888 points in his amazing career and Rick Middleton who sits fourth with 898 points.

By playing 25 more games, Bergeron will sit firmly in third place in all-time games played by a Bruin with 1,053. He would be passing current Bruins general manager Don Sweeney on that list, who played all but one of his 16 seasons with the Bruins. Safe to say Patrice has this one in the bag with Zdeno Chara being the closest active player on this list with 955 games played with the team.

For a player like Bergeron who is already one of the best in the game if he continues his point per game pace, he is almost certain to reach these milestones easily. All rely on if he can stay healthy. Bergeron hasn’t played a full season since the 2016-17 season and with him heading into this season as a 34-year-old it will only get harder to stay healthy from here.

Zdeno Chara

The big man Zdeno Chara is back for one more season. At the age of 42 (43 in March), he is the oldest player in the NHL. Being that old still playing means that you are hitting milestones just by playing single games at this point.

Chara is 6 penalty minutes away from reaching a career total of 1,902. While getting a penalty is considered selfish now, back in the day, if you had a large number of penalty minutes, you stuck up for your team and were considered tough. Chara doesn’t have to worry about his toughness level at this point in his career, but reaching over 1900 in his career is worth mentioning.

Only 20 players in the entire 102-year history of the NHL have played over 1,500 games. By playing 15 more games, Chara will reach that milestone and become the 21st. Reaching 1,500 is not only a testament to how much you can endure as a player, but also how great you must be to stay this long.

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On a fun note, last season, Matt Cullen became the 20th player to reach that mark with the Pittsburgh Penguins and was given a golf cart. One can only imagine what the guys will get Chara with his love of outdoors and exercising.

Also, by playing 45 more games this upcoming season, Chara will have played 1000 games with the Bruins. If he plays all 82, he will have played 1,037, putting him firmly fifth in franchise history.

This might be the Big Mans last season so if he reaches all these milestones that is one way to ride off in the sunset. Another Cup wouldn’t hurt either.

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David Backes

While he was a healthy scratch at times during the Stanley Cup playoffs this past spring, David Backes will have a lot to prove. It remains to be seen if he can be a regular on this roster. If Backes can stay healthy this whole season, he does have some milestones he can pass.

He needs to play 72 more games to get to 1,000 career games this season. Again, all depends if he stays healthy and can play his way to staying on the Bruins this year. To reach 250 goals in his career, Backes will need to score six goals. Last season, he had seven goals, so the odds are stacked against him, but it’s not impossible.

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David Krejci

David Krejci is perhaps the most forgotten about player in the NHL. His 73 points last season wasn’t even talked about once due to him playing in the shadow of Bergeron and Marchand. This season will be a big one to see if he can follow up that and considering he has a couple of milestones that he can reach maybe there will be some incentive to do just that.

When Krejci plays 50 more games, he will reach the 900 games mark, all with the Bruins, placing him seventh in all-time games played with the Bruins. He needs six goals to reach 200 career goals and just one more assist to reach 450 career assists.

To reach the 700 point mark, he will need 57 points. With Krejci getting 73 last season with no consistent wingers, it seems likely he could reach this milestone by February.

Brad Marchand

You hate Marchand. I hate Marchand. We all hate Marchand. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, Brad Marchand is one of the best players in the NHL. His 100 points last season was good for fifth in the entire league.

Marchand may be one of the most polarizing players in the game, but you can’t deny his skill. If everything goes perfect for him this season, he could end up with 300 goals and 300 assists for a perfect 600 points.

Most people dream of just scoring a single goal in the NHL. If Marchand scores 38 goals this season, he will reach the 300 goal milestone. He also would become only the seventh player in Bruins history to score 300 all with the club. He has been hovering around 35-40 goals the past four seasons so this is a very obtainable goal (pun intended).

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With three more assists, Marchand will join 300 career assists club. If he gets any less then 41 points, he won’t make it 600 career points. Considering Marchand has never had under 41 points in a full season, there’s a good bet he can make it to 600 before 2020 hits. If he gets to 610 points, he will be in the Bruins top 10 scorers all-time.

David Pastrnak

Another member of the “Perfection Line”, David Pastrnak is one of the best young players in the game. The Bruins love what ‘Pasta’ brings to the table for them and is one of my favorite players to watch personally.

Pastrnak will join the 300 point club if he gets 16 more points. Having scored over 70 points in the last 3 seasons, it is safe to say he has this one in the bag. If he plays 80 games during the 2019-20 season, he’ll join the 400 game club. This one might be hard for Pastrnak. He has only played at least 80 games in a season once in his five-year career.

Torey Krug

Torey Krug has quietly become one of the best offensive defensemen in Boston Bruins history. That’s quite a high praise considering Bobby Orr and Raymond Bourque both played on this team. If Krug can stay healthy and continue to get high point totals, Krug can soon see himself as one of the most offensively productive defensemen in the history of the Bruins.

To become the fifth-highest scoring defensemen in franchise history, Krug has to score 60 to pass Doug Mohns‘ 347 points, which he set back in 1964. He also needs 38 more games to hit 500 career games and 12 more points to hit 300 career points.

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Miscellaneous Stats

Tuukka Rask needs to play in five more games to reach 500 career games played. Also, with five more shutouts, he will have 50 in his career. His goaltending partner, Jaroslav Halak, needs 11 more games to reach 500 career games and three more shutouts to reach 50. Jake DeBrusk needs 15 more points to reach 100 career points.

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