Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. With the NBA on a break, let’s take a look at the biggest surprise in the NHL.
In today’s SI:AM:
🇫🇷 The NBA’s next generational prospect
⏲️ Changes coming to college football?
⚾ Why one of MLB’s biggest busts could turn it around
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The NHL’s unlikely leader
It’s been a great winter for sports fans in Boston. The Celtics currently have the best record in the NBA, and the Bruins not only have the NHL’s best record, but they also have a good chance of posting the best record in league history.
With a 3–1 win over the Senators yesterday, the Bruins improved to 43-8-5. That’s 91 points—way ahead of any other team in the league. (The Hurricanes are second in the Eastern Conference with 82 points, while no team in the West has more than 72.) Boston reached 90 points faster than any team since the 1979–80 Flyers and is on pace for 63 wins this season, which would break the record of 62 wins shared by the ’95–96 Red Wings and 2018–19 Lightning.
The Bruins’ only slipup has been a three-game losing streak at the end of January against the Lightning, Panthers and Hurricanes, all on the road. Other than that, Boston hasn’t lost consecutive games all season long and has put together three separate winning streaks of at least six games.
You might say that Boston’s success starts with defense. The Bruins have allowed a paltry 115 goals this season, miles better than the Stars, who are second best with 145. That works out to a mere 2.05 goals per game, approaching the post-expansion record of 1.89 set by the 2011–12 Blues. Boston’s penalty kill is the best in the league by a fairly significant margin, as well, holding opponents scoreless on 86.46% of opportunities. Goalie Linus Ullmark leads the league in both save percentage (.937) and goals against average (1.88). His backup, Jeremy Swayman, has been nearly as good. His .918 save percentage ranks in the top 10 in the league, and his 2.21 GAA is fourth.
But the Bruins are also elite offensively. They’ve scored 208 goals this season, second only to the Oilers’ 214, led by David Pastrnak, whose 41 goals are just behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (42) for the league lead.
Boston’s strong season comes as a surprise, though. The Bruins finished last season with 107 points, sixth in the East, and lost to the Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs in seven games. This season, oddsmakers gave them the 12th-best odds of winning the Stanley Cup. NHL.com had them 15th in its preseason power rankings, ESPN ranked them 14th, as did Bleacher Report, and The Seattle Times put them 11th.
With the March 3rd NHL trade deadline still two weeks away, there is still time for the Bruins to get even better. They’re rumored to be close to acquiring Blue Jackets defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and are one of several teams linked to Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. Whatever the Bruins do at the deadline, though, a tight salary cap situation will make things a little tricky.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Today’s Daily Cover is the cover story from the March issue of the magazine, in which Jeremy Woo profiles Victor Wembanyama—the French teenager that everyone in the NBA can’t stop talking about:
Life across the Atlantic awaits, future area code unbeknownst. For now, Wembanyama lives a relatively quiet and familiar life in Paris, not far from where he grew up in Le Chesnay, a pleasant suburb adjacent to the palace at Versailles. He can no longer move around in anonymity, relying on a private driver and occasionally a bodyguard. Wembanyama is still settling into fame and all it brings but wears it with an unusual air of calm, particularly for a teenager.
“When you know who you are, you know where you can go,” he says, sitting in a small cafe on Ile de la Jatte, a short walk from his team’s arena. “And that makes it easier.”
- Ross Dellenger reports that college football leaders are reviewing four ways to make games shorter.
- Pat Forde wonders where all the good young college hoops coaches have gone.
- Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic’s big league career couldn’t have gone much worse thus far, but Tom Verducci explains why he’s poised to turn things around this season.
- Brian Straus spoke with outgoing U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart.
- A 23-year-old White Sox prospect became the second minor leaguer to come out as gay.
- Meyers Leonard, who has not played in the NBA since using an antisemitic slur while streaming video games in 2021, is signing a 10-day contract with the Bucks.
- Red Sox owner John Henry isn’t happy that fans are upset with him.
- Despite still being undefeated, South Carolina was not the unanimous No. 1 choice in the women’s AP poll for the first time this season.
The top five...
… things I saw over the long weekend:
5. Sami Zayn’s entrance at WWE’s Elimination Chamber in his hometown of Montreal.
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s shot at referee Marc Davis on a hot mike during the All-Star celebrity game.
3. Patrick Kane’s snipe for the first goal of his hat trick against the Maple Leafs.
2. The St. Louis Battlehawks’ comeback win, thanks to the XFL’s unique rules.
1. Mac McClung’s performance at the NBA dunk contest.
SIQ
Biathlon made its official Olympic debut on this day in 1960, but the sport has much older origins. Which two countries competed in the first recorded biathlon competition in 1767?
- Canada and the United States
- Russia and Finland
- France and Prussia
- Sweden and Norway
Friday’s SIQ: On Feb. 17, 1927, days after being purchased by Conn Smythe, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their first game under their current nickname. What was the team called during the first part of that season?
- Arenas
- St. Patricks
- Huskies
- Nationals
Answer: St. Patricks. The team was known as the Arenas for its first two seasons, after the venue where it played its home games—Arena Gardens. In 1919, they were renamed the St. Patricks and kept the name until original owner Charles Querrie sold the team to Conn Smythe in February ’27.
On Feb. 15, the St. Patricks played their final game, losing 5–1 to the Detroit Cougars. Two nights later, they put on new uniforms for their first game as the Maple Leafs, beating the New York Americans at home, 4–1.
The Maple Leafs name was chosen to honor a Canadian regiment in World War I, the Maple Leaf Regiment, although a minor league baseball team of the same name had been playing in Toronto since 1896.
