What Bruins Need To Do To Position Themselves For Playoff Spot

The Bruins are fighting for a playoff spot, and the path to achieving their goal is clear.

Boston is atop of the Eastern Conference wild-card standings heading into Tuesday. However, multiple teams have more games to play than them.

If you look at the standings based off points percentage, the Black and Gold rank ninth in the Eastern Conference. That puts them out of the playoffs. However, there still is a realistic shot to continue the franchise’s postseason streak.

NESN’s Adam Pellerin and Judd Sirott discussed the playoff race on “The Hockey Hub” podcast, and the Bruins play-by-play announcer noted that the target number for Boston should be 100 points. In the last 10 years, teams that reached that benchmark made the playoffs.

That means the Bruins need to go at least 22-0-9 in 31 games or 27-4-0 at best. It won’t be easy, but it is doable.

“It looks like here in the last couple of games they’ve recaptured something that Charlie McAvoy had talked about; the way they defend in their own zone, that is their identity,” Sirott told Pellerin. “At times when they’ve had some difficulties here in January, that identity has slipped. When you think about what made this team so successful right after Jim Montgomery was let go and Joe Sacco took over, it was the way they defended and why they were able to put themselves back in the race in the Eastern Conference. They have to recapture that in the last 31 games and they can’t stray from it.”

The Bruins’ path to a postseason berth continues Tuesday when they take on the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is scheduled at 7 p.m. ET on NESN.

To hear more from “The Hockey Hub,” you can listen to the podcast on YouTube or Spotify.