There’s a very strong chance the 2016 Winter Classic will feature the first-place team in the NHL’s Atlantic Division. But it might not be the team most expected earlier in the season.
Following Friday night’s games, the Montreal Canadiens, the division’s top dogs ever since the first puck dropped in early October, lead the second-place Boston Bruins, their opponent in the New Year’s Day showcase, by a mere three points in the standings.
“Right now, I think we’re in a real good place,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said in an interview with NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley following his team’s 6-2 shellacking of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
“I think our guys are starting to really feel it amongst each other. Your hope is that it continues to stay that way, and the proof is just watching our game (Friday night), how hard we played for each other and through a situation that we knew was going to be a tough game. Certainly, (the Penguins) came out hard, and we were obviously prepared for that.”
The Bruins are playing their best hockey of the season as the New Year approaches, winning 10 of their last 14 games and coming away with a point in three of those four losses. During that span, which began following a loss to the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 17, Julien’s squad has jumped four spots in the division standings and made up nine points on the first-place Canadiens, who have lost seven of their last nine and have played 33 games to the Bruins’ 31.
“The points are huge,” winger Frank Vatrano, who scored a hat trick in Friday’s win, said in a postgame interview with NESN rinkside reporter Sarah Davis.
“We’re trying to climb our way up to first place. … I think if we just keep going with this momentum that we have, we can be really high up in the standings come Christmas break. I think we’ve just got to keep working hard and keep going forward.”
Just five points separate Montreal from the fifth-place Florida Panthers in the Atlantic, so the Bruins have no reason to rest on their laurels with more than half a season still left to play. But they can find satisfaction in results like Friday’s, which allowed Boston to sweep a two-game home-and-home against a Penguins team that sits just a few points out of a wild-card spot.
“We said before this two-game series that we needed a big two games, especially to keep pushing teams down that are below us,” center Patrice Bergeron, who scored twice Friday, told Davis. “Pittsburgh is one of those teams, and we knew they were going to give us a big push (Friday night). They’re playing some desperate hockey, and I thought we weathered the storm pretty well, and we got back in the game.”
An important stretch now awaits the Bruins, who play four of their next six games — including the Jan. 1 Classic — against divisional opponents.
Thumbnail photo via Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports Images
