It’s hard to believe, but just five games are remaining in the 2022-23 regular season for the Boston Bruins. They have already locked up the Atlantic Division, won the Presidents’ Trophy, and have home-ice advantage throughout their stay in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There is still some business for the Bruins to attend to as they are three wins away and seven points away from setting NHL records in both. How they go about playing their final five games remains to be seen, but there are some players worth keeping an eye on over the next seven days. Here are three Bruins to watch over the final five games before the postseason begins.
David Pastrnak
After going on a scoring streak of three games last week with five goals in total, can David Pastrnak reach the 60-goal total for the season, needing just four? As he has shown multiple times in his career, he can score goals in bunches, just as he did on April 1 in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins when he recorded a hat trick.
He reached the 50-goal plateau on March 26 against the Carolina Hurricanes when he scored on a breakaway against Frederik Andersen. Pastrnak has thrived on the second line this season with Pavel Zacha and David Krejci and it’s no surprise that he reached the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career. The 2019-20 co-winner of the Maurice Rocket Richard Award with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals with 48 goals, recently signed an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value (AAV) of $11.25 million and will finish second in the race for his second award in four seasons.
Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers leads the league with 62 goals, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Pastrnak win another Richard Award over the next eight seasons.
Jake DeBrusk
For the second consecutive season, Jake DeBrusk has scored 25 goals. In the final five games, he has an opportunity to set a new career-high with 28, to better his production from the 2018-19 season. He had a goal in the Bruins’ 4-3 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues on April 2 and will get plenty of more chances playing in the top six and on the first power play unit.
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In 59 games this season, he already has a career-high in points with 48 and has 23 assists. DeBrusk suffered a pair of injuries in the Bruins’ 2-1 Winter Classic victory over the Penguins on Jan. 2 and scored both third-period goals on a broken leg. It has been over a year since general manager (GM) Don Sweeney did not honor the 14th overall pick in the 2015 Entry Draft’s trade request and keeping the Edmonton, Alberta native is proving to be a big win for the organization (from ‘Jake DeBrusk requests trade from Bruins,’ The Athletic, Nov. 29, 2021). A motivated DeBrusk over the last calendar year-plus has been big for the Black and Gold.
Linus Ullmark
All season long, Linus Ullmark has been in a zone between the pipes for the Bruins and the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy is two wins shy of 40 for the season. With five games remaining, it’s more than likely he will get at least two, if not three starts, with the opportunity to get the two victories.
Ullmark is 38-6-1 with a 1.90 goals-against average (GAA) and a .937 save percentage (SV%). Last season he set a career-high for wins with 26, but smashed that record this season. A big reason why he is closing in on 40 wins is because of Jeremy Swayman’s injury on Nov. 1 against the Penguins, which forced him to miss nearly a month and Ullmark played in all but one of the games in Swayman’s absence. A 40-win regular season would be hard to ignore when it comes time to vote for the Vezina Trophy winner for this season.
Aside from the NHL record for wins and points in a single regular season, there is not a lot left to play for the Bruins before the playoffs begin. Getting through that stretch healthy is going to be key as they already have some players, including captain Patrice Bergeron, playing through some “nagging injuries’’, but there are certainly some good reasons to tune in and watch the final five games play out.