Have you heard the news? The Boston Bruins are pretty good this year.
They went 14-0-0 at TD Garden before Monday's shootout loss to Vegas, setting a new NHL record for the longest home streak to start a season. They persevered through key injuries, goaltender Linus Ullmark is making an early case for Vezina contention, and it looks like new head coach Jim Montgomery is panning out.
At 20-3-1, it's time to take a closer look at what's behind the magic for the No. 1 team in the Atlantic. Plenty of little and big things have come together for Boston, so let's rank some of the most evident in order of significance.
9. Closing Time
Surely we all remember those iconic Semisonic lyrics: "Closing time, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay on the TD Garden ice for the goalie hug."
The Bruins have had some wild comeback efforts and otherwise strong scoring performances in third periods.
Is that a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing?
We'll see.
I'd argue the ability to turn it on and decide to win in the third could be good for confidence come playoffs, but at the same time, you don't want to get too confident and think you can have a horrible first period when the other team is giving it 110 percent.
Their first home loss—a shootout against Vegas on Monday—is the best example you'll get of this. The Bruins went down 0-3 against the other best team in the league, climbed back to tie it up and force overtime and lost in the shootout with their backup goalie.
Maybe the pain of losing to former head coach Bruce Cassidy in that fashion will teach them a lesson, but honestly, they had to lose at home at some point this season, and they still got a point against the best team in the West.
It's hard to find this pattern too troubling—for now.
8. Rising up to Top Teams
I'll hand it to the naysayers; at least they were creative. Instead of going for the typical "Is X team peaking early?" trope when it came to these Bruins, they opted for strength of schedule complaints.
The parity in the NHL is so evident right now that Boston's start would've been impressive regardless of who they played, and, yes, the schedule early on featured teams projected on the weaker side.
But the season was so young, and, in retrospect, some of those projections have already changed. The Bruins beat the Stars, Penguins Red Wings, Lightning (twice), Hurricanes and Avalanche, and most recently came back to take the Golden Knights to a shootout. I'm not writing any of those opponents off.