BOSTON — Brad Marchand can already picture it when he and his Boston Bruins teammates years from now reminisce about the 2022-23 season.
They will certainly look back fondly on all the accomplishments they achieved, including the record the Bruins set Tuesday night at TD Garden when they defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2. With the win, the Bruins, who improved to a pristine 64-12-5, surpassed the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens’ all-time single-season record for points in a season with 133.
“We’re very proud of this group and what we’ve been able to accomplish to be the top points and most wins ever is an incredible accomplishment,” Marchand said. “With the history of this league and how many good teams there’s been, it’s special. It’s something I think down the road we’ll be more proud of. … The more you talk to guys who are retired now and look back on their careers and are real proud of certain things, I think it’s something we’ll look at down the road when we’re daydreaming about what we got to do and what we’ve accomplished.”
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery at first tried to downplay the Bruins owning yet another NHL record. But for the Montreal native, who used to go to Canadiens games in the mid 1970s and watch them thrash the opposition, there was some special meaning behind the feat.
“I think of all the Hall of Famers on those teams and then Scotty Bowman behind the bench and going to the old Montreal Forum. Think about how great those teams were and how we’ve surpassed that total,” Montgomery said. “It’s significant because those were dominant, dominant hockey teams.”
With the Bruins toppling the single-season wins and points records, the hype of trying to surpass those marks will fade. Montgomery is happy for that, but knows more hype is on the way with the playoffs on the near horizon.
“We’re looking forward to next week, but we’re going to go to Montreal and get ready for another game,” Montgomery said. “I think we’ve been able to keep moving on to what’s next, not looking too far ahead.”
Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Capitals game:
— The Bruins saw their penalty kill streak snapped at 39 straight thanks to a third-period goal from Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
— The Bruins are showing much better on the power play as of late as they went 2-for-2 on the man-advantage. According to The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont, it was just the second time the Bruins have registered two power-play goals in a game since Dec. 31
“I have zero concerns about our power play,” Montgomery said.
— Craig Smith faced the Bruins for the first time since Boston dealt the veteran forward for Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov prior to the NHL trade deadline. Smith had a quiet night in his return as he recorded six shots and one hit in 17:08 of time on ice while Hathaway scored a goal against his former team.
— After scoring a third-period goal, Tomas Nosek made a beeline for the net and scooped up the puck. It was important for him to get possession of the piece of rubber since the tally marked Nosek’s 100th career point in the NHL.
“I wanted to keep it just to have it,” Nosek told NESN.com. “I’m not sure if someone’s tracking my points record or not, but I just wanted to make sure I keep the puck.”
— David Pastrnak turned into a distributor instead of a goal-scorer against the Capitals as he dished out two assists to give him 51 helpers on the season. He became the first Bruins player to record at least 50 goals and 50 assists in a season since Phil Esposito did so in 1974-75, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
— The Bruins close out their regular season Thursday with a matchup against the archrival Montreal Canadiens. Puck drop from the Bell Centre is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
