Earlier this decade, fans in New England were treated to an exciting run of Red Sox and Patriots championships as both teams dominated their respective leagues. Meanwhile, to find a story about the Celtics or Bruins, you would've had to dig pretty deep into the sports section of the Boston Globe to find a recap of a game the night before. On December 7, for the first time in as long as many fans can remember, the Bruins were featured above the fold on the front page of the Globe. Has the torch been passed? Let's first take a look at the Bruins and try to figure out if this torrid start can possibly continue and somehow lead to a Stanley Cup Championship.Following Tuesday's 2-0 shutout of the New Jersey Devils, the Bruins now find themselves perched atop the Eastern Conference with a 25-5-4 record. Their 54 points are second in the NHL only to red-hot San Jose who achieved the fastest start in league history through 30 games. Third-year winger Phil Kessel currently sits fourth in the league in goals with 21 while playmaker Marc Savard trails Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin by one for the assist lead with 21. The dangerous duo teams up with 6-4, 220 pound beast-child Milan Lucic to create one of the most balanced, talented, and fun-to-watch lines in the NHL. In goal, Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez are ranked second and third respectively in goals against average behind Columbus rookie Steve Mason. How could this team possibly lose?
I'm not about to say the Bruins will head into a freefall and miss the playoffs completely. I can't argue a team that starts 25-5-4 isn't one of the league's elite. But I will say they are about to cool off...and when that happens we'll begin to really see what this very young team is made of.
Boston currently leads the NHL with 126 goals...but aside from Savard and the injured Patrice Bergeron, not a single player on the roster has put up more than 63 points in a season. Once teams begin to find ways to slow down this offense, the Bruins will need to start winning some 2-1 defensive battles. While the Thomas-Fernandez tandem has been standing on their head through the first third of the season, they are facing far too many shots a game (ranked 22nd at 30.5 shots a game). Boston's defense currently features Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman, Matt Hunwick, Shane Hnidy, Mark Stuart, and Matt Lashoff...hardly an imposing top 6.
In many cases, all it takes is a few unlucky injuries to expose a team like this. Last Thursday, winger Marco Sturm suffered what looks to be a bad knee injury that might require surgery. There's no word on how long he'll be out, but two days later Patrice Bergeron absorbed another concussion which has the potential to threaten his career. If you'll remember, Bergeron was hit viciously into the boards last season by the Flyers Randy Jones and it took him months to recover enough to even ride a bike for 5 minutes. Losing key forwards like Sturm and Bergeron for a long period of time could bring this hot start to a screeching halt. I would still expect Boston to have no trouble making the playoffs, but this is a very young team. Inexperience can be deadly when the stakes are raised in the playoffs - look for the Bruins to last one round or two at the most.
If the Bruins' bubble is about to burst, what about the Celtics? SportsJudge's NBA expert Adam Primm decided to weigh in on the Celtics' chances at repeating and possibly topping the regular season wins record set in the Michael Jordan era:
On Sunday the Celtics won their 18th straight game to go to 26-2 on the season. With such a prolific start, fans have to wonder if the Celtics can keep up this pace. The Chicago Bulls record of 72 wins in a season is within reach even if the Celts cool off a little, but how feasible will it be for Boston to break that record.Only 10 of the 26 wins have been within 10 points. However, one of those was to the 23-4 Cleveland Cavs, and two were to the South leading Atlanta Hawks. The Celtics have simply been obliterating the competition in the early part of the season. And the scary thing is, the 'Big Three' (aka the Boston Three Party) are scoring less this year than last year. Paul Pierce's scoring average is down one point and Kevin Garnett is down two. Ray Allen has improved by one point. The main reason for the Celtics improved play has been the maturation of point guard Rajon Rondo who is playing more aggressive this season and is showing he can score with the other three. The 'Big Three' may become the 'Four Horsemen' by the end of the season if he continues to improve.
The Celtics are currently on pace to finish roughly 76-6 at their current pace. However, there is no chance that the win at that rate for the full season. Given the age of this team, relatively older by NBA standards, I would expect to see them wear down a little come midseason. Also, this team has yet to experience any kind of injury. The Cavs were playing at a similar pace winning 19 out of 20 games during a stretch earlier this season. While the Cavs are now 23-4 overall, they struggled in two tough games against Philadelphia before losing on the road at Atlanta, a major reason why these three games were difficult was because two of the Cavs key players were injured in Daniel Gibson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. When those two came back, the Cavs crushed the Nuggets in Denver. The Celtics currently have a better record, and Pierce, Allen, Garnett, and Rondo are probably are better starting unit than Lebron James, Mo Williams, Delonte West, and Ilgauskas, but the Cavs are a team that are 10 deep with the bench. The Celtics bench is good, but only has 3, maybe 4 players, that can be plugged in to avoid a letdown if someone gets hurt meaning the health of the Big Three is very important to their run at 72. The Cavs had 2 guys go down and promptly lost one game and struggled in the other two. A team that isn't quite as deep will probably have similar problems in the same situation.
While I think the Celtics have a very good chance to win 70 games, I think they will fall just short of the record at 72. I expect the veteran players to wear down a little and some major contributor to be hurt for a significant period, like 10-15 days. This doesn't mean that I don't think the Celtics are the best team in the league. I am confident that we can at least pencil the Celts in the Conference Finals right now because the only two teams that have a chance of beating them in a seven game series are the Cavs and the Lakers. The Celtics should easily finish with the best record in the league, but I don't think they will be able to keep up this pace and break the Bulls record for wins.
Agree? Disagree with where the Bruins and Celtics are headed this year? Feel free to speak your mind in the comments section.
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While I agree that the Celtics very likely won't win 72 games (especially after not showing up in the fourth quarter against L.A. and Golden State this past week), having the Cavs on their heels throughout the season may push them closer to the mark than the 66 games they won last year, but I think 66 is about the number they'll win again. After all, their 2007-08 record through 32 games is actually now better than their current record through 32.
Despite growing up and now returning to live in Massachusetts, I'll keep my mouth shut about the Bruins since I haven't paid attention to them since the lockout. I realized I'll have to work on becoming informed when I learned that Ted Donato is not on the Bruins and has been Harvard's head coach for four years.
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