The Boston Bruins have officially clinched a playoff spot and now it's time to make sure they are ready for the playoffs. It's no shock that the Bruins made the playoffs as they have not missed the playoffs since 2016. The continuance of winning is something that 1st year Bruin defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk took notice when he signed in Boston last summer as he stated, "It's very refreshing to see that groundwork has been laid." For the Bruins, the expectation is the Stanley Cup finals, especially after last year setting NHL records for both team wins and points. With eight games remaining, the division should still be the goal, however, we saw last year, even winning the division, the Bruins suffered a 1st round exit. Most important is making sure the team is ready to take on, no matter who is their 1st round opponent.
Recently Brad Marchand, had comments in regard to the playoffs as he stated, "With the adversity that we went through and the amount of changeover that we had and the players that we lost, I thought we did a great job coming together and accomplishing what we needed to, to get to the playoffs,"he then stated "It is a big deal, but once the playoffs start, it all starts again and there's much bigger things at stake." These are great comments coming from the captain, as it makes it known to the team, that the season restarts once the playoffs begin, the records are irrelevant as we saw last year, whether the Bruins win the division or not, the goal should remain the same and winning the Stanley Cup.
Also, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery as stated that the top players won't be rested and captain Brad Marchand made another great point as he stated, "It's about preparing the same way each night," Marchand said. "Come playoff time, you can't just flip a switch. You need to be ready, and there's a lot of teams that are fighting for their lives right now and playing really well and if you don't have that same mindset, you can get caught off guard come playoff time. So, it's about making sure that each night you come prepared to play and you don't get complacent at all." This makes a ton of sense, as there a good chance that the Bruins will be playing a wild card team, and they will be battling for their playoff lives, most likely will be until the end of the season. Their opponent will be in playoff mode for weeks and it appears that the Bruins captain is doing everything he can so that his team is prepared come playoff time, to avoid another 1st round exit. Which we can see why, Brad Marchand is a good leader and was made the captain of the Boston Bruins.
