Scotty Bowman understands more than a little bit about what it takes to win in the National Hockey League.
Not only did he coach nine Stanley Cup champions — which still seems impossible — he coached the best regular-season team in NHL history. That was in Montreal. He also coached the second-best regular-season team in history. That was in Detroit. And the third-best team, points-wise. Again in Montreal.
So when Bowman talks about how impressed he is with this year’s Boston Bruins — a team nothing like his champions in Montreal, Detroit, or Pittsburgh — he is speaking from a place no one else has ever been or experienced before.
“They could end up with 140 points,” Bowman said on the phone, talking from his winter home in Florida. “And I thought when they started the season with (Charlie) McAvoy hurt and (Brad) Marchand out, I thought they’d get off to an awful start. That’s when you realized how good (Hampus) Lindholm is. What a great pickup he has been for the Bruins.”
Bowman turns 90 in September. You would never know that when talking to him. There isn’t a hockey subject he doesn’t want to engage in. There isn’t a piece of information or a player evaluation that he isn’t somehow party to. Bowman is like a one-stop walking encyclopedia of hockey. He knows everyone and everything.
He used to play sports in Montreal with Jim Montgomery’s dad. Montgomery is the first-year coach of the Bruins and the runaway NHL coach of the year.
“I always knew he was a really good coach who’s had some ups and downs,” Bowman said before pausing. “But this year …”
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This year the Bruins have 103 points after 62 games. If they continue at their current pace, they will finish with a record 136 points. If they win 13 of their final 20 games, they will tie the record for 62 wins in a season. If they win 14, which is in keeping with the first three-quarters of the season, they will have the most wins and possibly the most points in an NHL season.
“They’re a deep, deep team,” said Bowman. “And they don’t depend on one or two players. It used to be if (Patrice) Bergeron and Marchand didn’t do it, it didn’t get done. They’ve lightened the load on those guys this season and it’s made the team better. (David) Pastrnak has been great. McAvoy has been great.
“It seems every move they’ve made has worked out in their favour. They brought in Lindholm last year. He’s been impressive. They gave a pretty good contract to (Linus) Ullmark. I never knew much about him and neither did anyone else but they gave him a good contract and he doesn’t look lucky to me.
He’s good.
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“They traded for (Pavel) Zacha, who was a bit of a bust in Jersey, he’s been good. They brought back (David) Krejci. He’s been good. They just brought in (Dmitry) Orlov, and he’s been good. Go through the whole team, they’ve got Taylor Hall on the third line, and what stands out is their depth. They brought in a guy like Tomas Nosek, kind of a nobody, and he wins faceoffs and is great on the penalty kill. A really good addition.”
When Bowman’s Canadiens won 62 games in ’76-77, they had nine Hall of Fame players — Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, and Bob Gainey — a Hall of Fame coach in Bowman and a Hall of Fame general manager in Sam Pollock.
When Bowman’s Red Wings had 131 points in ‘95-96, the team had seven Hall of Fame players — Steve Yzerman, Nick Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Paul Coffey, Igor Larionov, Dino Ciccarelli, and Viacheslav Fetisov with a Hall of Fame coach and a Hall of Fame GM.
From this year’s Bruins team, it is certain Bergeron will be going to the Hall. Probably Marchand. And eventually Pastrnak. Maybe one day we’ll think of McAvoy that way. But that’s it with the Bruins. That’s the all-time greatness here and really why this team is so surprising yet so complete.
I asked a former general manager about the Bruins, someone who built champions himself, and he used that word also. Complete. Four lines complete. Seven defencemen complete. Excellent goaltending. Excellent coaching from Montgomery.
I asked several hockey people who the Bruins MVP has been for this season, and nothing says more about this team than the answers. Five different answers emerged. Ullmark. McAvoy. Lindholm. Bergeron. Pastrnak.
With 20 games to go, Boston is 22 points ahead of any team in the Western Conference. They are 17 points ahead of the Maple Leafs, who are playing at 110-point pace. Their goal differential — Mike Babcock’s favourite statistic — is an unheard-of plus-105. No team, since the 90s, has finished anywhere close to where the Bruins numbers will be once the season concludes.
“Will they win?” Bowman asked rhetorically. “When Tampa won 62 games a few years back, I thought they would have won. I will say this. It will take a helluva team to beat the Bruins and I do mean team. That’s what they are, more than anyone else. They’re a team.
“The best team in hockey.”
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