Boston Bruins: NHL realignment makes a playoff push a whole lot harder

The Boston Bruins’ path to the playoffs just got harder.

Welp, it’s officially official: The 2020-21 NHL season is set to start on January 13th (more on that here). From the Boston Bruins to the San Jose Sharks, the Edmonton Oilers, to the Florida Panthers, the league’s 31 teams will finally get to return to the ice, open up training camp, and stake a claim for the Stanley Cup Finals.

And needless to say, the forthcoming season is going to be weird by traditional standards.

With newly realigned divisions crafted to accommodate a closed Canadian Border and all 56 of each team’s regular-season games set to take place versus intradivision foes, the playoff picture is going to look noticeably different from the typical dynamics we’ve collectively become accustomed to.

But if you’re a fan of the Boston Bruins, you’ll likely be a bit miffed, as the NHL just gave your team an absolute blow by placing them in the newly formed Eastern Division.

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That’s right, gone are the days of getting to breeze through the Detroit Red Wings, the Ottawa Senators, the Montreal Canadiens, and even the Florida Panthers, and in their place comes a loaded slate against the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Washington Capitals.

Ouch.

Sure, there’s always the New Jersey Devils, who may not win a single game against this brutal slate of intradivision foes, but even the other team not typically in the Metropolitan Division, the Buffalo Sabres, got significantly better this offseason with the addition of marquee free agent Taylor Hall and could be a tougher out than usual under second-year head coach Ralph Krueger.

In 2019-20, the new Eastern Conference had five members with 80 or more points, with the Rangers coming just one point shy at 79. Their collective 660 points are 120 points higher than the next best division – the West – and 217 points higher than the newly formed Central Division – which is really just the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Dallas Stars, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Logistically speaking, the Bruins really only made sense in the Eastern Division, but my goodness, it’s hard not to look at the Central Division and think that the Bruins wouldn’t be a guaranteed second seed versus that slate of opponents. But in the East? Having to play the Flyers, the Capitols, and the Penguins back to back to back? My goodness, the Bruins are still probably a top-four team, but with much less wiggle room thanks to the abbreviated schedule; things could get ugly for any team if they start out slow or have a crucial player(s) opt-out of the season.

The 20

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21NHL season is going to be weird for every team. Some teams got it easy by landing in an easier division – I’m looking at you, the Colorado Avalanche, and the St. Louis Blues – while others, like the Boston Bruins, suddenly have a much harder path to make the playoffs, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals. While it’s certainly nice to have hockey back, that’s not an ideal situation regardless of how you slice it.