Bruins To Face ‘Serious Test’ During Upcoming Road Trip

The Boston Bruins can’t get caught looking ahead with a matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday at TD Garden.

But after that, the Bruins will be presented with a measuring stick road trip.

The Bruins head off to the West Coast for a season-long five-game road trip against some top-tier competition as they will face the Winnipeg Jets, Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers.

During the latest episode of NESN’s “The Hockey Hub” podcast, play-by-play announcer Judd Sirott broke down the matchups as the outcomes of those games will say a lot about the Bruins.

“It’s going to be a serious test for the team,” Sirott said. “It starts in Winnipeg, as you mentioned, on Dec. 10. The Jets, I understand, they’ve stumbled here a little bit of late. Nikolaj Ehlers is also banged up. Not sure if he’s going to be available for that game when the Bruins start that long trip. But that’s a team that’s gotten off to a terrific start here in the first half of the season. Seattle has always been competitive when they’ve had an opportunity to play against the Bruins.

“And then you start to get into the meat and potatoes of the trip. The Vancouver Canucks, they’ve actually had a hard time winning at home early in the season. … That’s always a test when you’re playing on Hockey Night in Canada. It’s that first Saturday of the trip against the Vancouver Canucks. And then you head into Calgary. They’ve been a surprising team here early in the season. And then it’s Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers to close it out.”

Boston has faced three of the five teams already, picking up wins over the Kraken and Flames — in overtime — but fell to the Canucks despite outshooting Vancouver, 33-14.

The Bruins have held their own away from TD Garden, going 6-5-1. They are just one of two teams in the Atlantic Division with above .500 road records.

You can watch all episodes of “The Hockey Hub” podcast on YouTube and Spotify.