Given the current reality, what are your expectations?

[ivanvamp]

The Bruins have the most points in the NHL with 110.  They have the best goal differential at +83.  They have allowed the fewest goals with 158.  They have the scored the third most goals with 241.  They have a goalie with the second-best save percentage (Rask, .931).  He also has the most shutouts (7), and is tied for 5th in wins (34).  They have 10 guys with 30+ points.  They have 9 guys with 14+ goals.  They have the 3rd best power play kill and the 7th best power play units in the league.  
 
They are strong, they are talented, they are deep.  They can play fast, skilled hockey, or then can bang you around all night long.  They can score and they can play defense.  They are disciplined.  They are very well-coached.

In short, they are the best team in hockey.
 
So, given that, what are your expectations for them?  The obvious answer is probably at least making the Stanley Cup Finals.  The playoffs are exceedingly difficult to get through, as we've all seen over the years.  So *expecting* them to win it all may be a bit much.  For me, I expect them to make the Stanley Cup Finals, and from there, I'll definitely take my chances.
 
Long story short, they have as good a shot as anybody to win it all.  It's going to be very exciting.

 

[Saints Rest]

It would be boring to say ditto.  But, well, ditto.
 
When the opening post so nails the thread title question, it doesn't leave much room for further discussion.  You nailed it:  Best team in hockey, deep, multi-facted, well-coached, as good a shot as anybody to win it all.  

 

[durandal1707]

I'd say anything short of getting into the SCF would be disappointing, given how elite the Bs are in almost every facet of the game.

But as we get closer to the playoffs I have to say that the East looks less of a cakewalk than it did a few weeks ago.  The Red Wings seem to be getting healthy at just the right time.  There's some very good goalies in the mix who are more than capable of standing on their head and stealing a series - Bobrovsky, Bishop, Halak, Lundqvist and Price.  (There's also Braden Fuckin' Holtby as well.)

But with all that in mind,  while I don't expect the Bs to go cleanly through the East, the regular season has shown them to be the best team in the East and I expect that to be borne out in the playoffs.  They're the best 5-on-5 team in the league (the next 5 are all Western teams), a top 5 possession team, and they're also great at special teams (currently 3rd in PP% and 7th in PK%, which looks much improved recently).  They're nigh-impossible to defend with three lines that each can take over a game and have arguably the best fourth line in the league, and it should be very natural for them to play a heavy, "war of attrition" physical game in a playoff series.  Tuukka Rask is the Vezina frontrunner right now and the Bruins are the league's best defensive team.

I only hopped on the B's bandwagon about five years ago, but this year's squad looks to be the best suited for a deep playoff run out of all of them.

 

[locknload]

SCF if healthy.  They have set themselves wonderfully for a good long deep run.  The big thing the playoffs though is that they are always about health and that is a matter of luck to a very high degree.  It's a battle of attrition its impossible everyone for any team makes it through unscathed.  Just look at the list of surgeries that come out right after every playoff series is over.  We may be a broken Krejci wrist and punctured Bergeron lung from talking about 3 cups with this crew.  So long as they don't lose too many pieces to injury the only team that really strikes true fear into me is the Blues and that would be an epic SCF.

 

[TSC]

It's hard, like - really hard to win the Stanley Cup.
 
You need health, players getting hot at the right time, and immeasurable amounts of luck.
 
The Bruins currently have 2 of 3 going for them - but a lot can change in a 7 game series.
 
That being said - I think expectations should end at the ECF. Too much can happen to assume anything further than that.

 

[NYCSox]

Funny - I had this same conversation last night with a good friend and we agreed that anything less than reaching the SCF would be a major disappointment.

 

[allstonite]

For all of Felger's faults, I subscribe to his line of thinking that if you finish in the top 4 of your league, it was a successful season. After that it comes down to health and luck. It's cliche but in the NHL playoffs it's true that anything can happen. See Bruins in 2011 or the 8th seed Kings in 2012

 

[RIFan]

Even realizing the difficulties of making it through to the finals, I would still be disappointed if they don't make it to the SCF. Rationally, you realize injuries, a hot goalie, or other factors come into play, but fandom isn't rational and anything short of a competitive finals would be a disappointment.

 

[MoGator71]

The Bruins are good enough that I expect them to reach the SCF. Once they get there they will likely face a test from either a really good Western team or a really hot Western team that picked off multiple clubs en route. Either way it's going to be a battle, and I don't think you could call losing the SCF a disappointment. 
 
Not that anyone asked but...I should probably be satisfied that my team gets into the playoffs, considering last season and how this season started. But being the entitled greedy snot fan I am, I'll likely be pretty disappointed if the Flyers go down in the first 2 rounds. If they play like they've played for the past 4 months there's no reason they can't beat anyone in the east other than Boston.

 

[TheRealness]

A championship. Unless they suffer an injury, they should win it all. I will be disappointed if they don't, even if that is unfair to them. 
 
I'm not usually like that, but as I've said before 2011 was more like the 2004 Red Sox in that it was tough to believe in it until it actually happened. After there was a euphoric sense of relief when they won, and it was awesome. This year feels a lot like the 2007 Red Sox. That team was dominant and just better than everyone else. Not only did you expect them to win, you knew they would deep down. There was an inevitability to it. But they were the best team and they deserved it. This year's Bruins team feels like that. They should win, because they are the best team, and they work so hard they deserve it. I just don't see anyone beating them. 
 
I watch a lot of hockey. This team should win the cup. They just need to stay healthy and play their game. 

 

[Dan to Theo to Ben]

They are the best team in hockey, case closed. Don't watch the Blues or Avs or Ducks enough, but they're significantly better than the Pens, Sharks, and Blackhawks. They are the distinct favorite. They should win it.

 

[InstantKarmma]

They are the best team in hockey, case closed. Don't watch the Blues or Avs or Ducks enough, but they're significantly better than the Pens, Sharks, and Blackhawks. They are the distinct favorite. They should win it.

I watch a lot of Blues games, and they're really good. Their game is similar to Boston's (get the puck in deep, win the battles), they're a good defensive team, too. And also like Boston, they've been hot as hell since the Olympics. And they replaced a good goalie with an elite goalie.

I expect a Bruins/Blues SCF, and I expect it to go 6 or 7 games.

 

[ForceAtHome]

They are the best team in hockey, case closed. Don't watch the Blues or Avs or Ducks enough, but they're significantly better than the Pens, Sharks, and Blackhawks. They are the distinct favorite. They should win it.

 
The Bruins could be the favorite to win the Cup of any individual team, but that does not mean that they are more likely to win it than not. I don't think any team is close to having a 50%+ chance of winning the Cup. The favorite is pretty much always going to be the field against any one team. Thinking the Bruins "should win it" or being "disappointed if they don't" is pretty optimistic.

 

[RedOctober3829]

 
The Bruins could be the favorite to win the Cup of any individual team, but that does not mean that they are more likely to win it than not. I don't think any team is close to having a 50%+ chance of winning the Cup. The favorite is pretty much always going to be the field against any one team. Thinking the Bruins "should win it" or being "disappointed if they don't" is pretty optimistic.

If you've been watching this team in March, you'd come away feeling the same.  They were dominant.

 

[DJnVa]

Even realizing the difficulties of making it through to the finals, I would still be disappointed if they don't make it to the SCF. Rationally, you realize injuries, a hot goalie, or other factors come into play, but fandom isn't rational and anything short of a competitive finals would be a disappointment.

 
If there are no injuries and outside some ridiculous goalie standing on his head against the Bruins, I'll be disappointed by a loss short of the SCF.

 

[ForceAtHome]

If you've been watching this team in March, you'd come away feeling the same.  They were dominant.

 
The Bruins have been incredible over the past month, no question. But it's not like there aren't other good teams out there. While the Bruins have been 15-1-1 since March began, the Blues are 12-3-1. The Blues have also been at it all year, and on the whole, are right there with Boston for best team in the league (now with a new goalie, too).
 

 
I think the Bruins have the slight edge over the Blues right now with how well they're playing of late and their experience. But I would give them maybe a a 50-55% chance of winning against the Blues (which I think would be a phenomenal series). I don't think there's any way the Bruins are at 50%+ for winning the Stanley Cup. Winning in the playoffs is hard. Last year's Bruins, who very well could have won the Cup and obviously made it, were all but eliminated by the Leafs in the first round. In 2012, the Bruins were taken down by the Caps. That 2011-12 Bruins team, by the way, was #1 in the NHL in goal differential while Washington had a negative differential.
 
Even in 2011 when the Bruins went all the way, how many close calls were there against Montreal and Tampa, both with one-goal game sevens that went down to the wire? In order to win the Cup, you not only need to be good, but also lucky (bounces and health).

 

[Stitch01]

 
The Bruins could be the favorite to win the Cup of any individual team, but that does not mean that they are more likely to win it than not. I don't think any team is close to having a 50%+ chance of winning the Cup. The favorite is pretty much always going to be the field against any one team. Thinking the Bruins "should win it" or being "disappointed if they don't" is pretty optimistic.

Exactly.  I like this teams chances heading into the playoffs as much as any Boston team Ive seen, but its pretty much mathematically impossible to be 50% to win the cup heading into the playoffs.  They'd have to be something just over 5-1 favorites each series.  Even if you thought they were 100% locks the first two rounds, they'd have to be better than 2-1 favorites in the east and the cup finals. 

 

[Red Right Ankle]

Yep, last night's game, last year's series against TOR (yes they won, but they came very, very close to losing to a vastly inferior team) and the 2012 series against WAS should demonstrate that even great teams get upended in individual games and in series.  The combination of puck luck, officiating and a hot goaltender is a potent one, indeed.
 
I will be happy if they make the ECF, ecstatic if the make the SCF and covered in jizz (mostly my own I should think, but one mustn't rule these things out) if they win it all.

 

[lexrageorge]

This is a team that should make it the Conference Finals.  While anything less than a Cup will be at least somewhat disappointing, the difficulty of winning it cannot be overstated.  The days of one team winning 4 Cups in a row are over for quite some time.  
 
Not making all the way to the ECF would be a big letdown.  But NHL history is riddled with teams that romped through the regular season only to end up going home before April ends.  Those first round matchups can be truly difficult.  Almost every Cup winner has had at least one series early on where they scraped by with the thinnest of margins.   

 

[NYCSox]

Except for the Kings, but that is the exception and not the rule.

 

[Red Right Ankle]

Yep, last night's game, last year's series against TOR (yes they won, but they came very, very close to losing to a vastly inferior team) and the 2012 series against WAS should demonstrate that even great teams get upended in individual games and in series.  The combination of puck luck, officiating and a hot goaltender is a potent one, indeed.
 
I will be happy if they make the ECF, ecstatic if the make the SCF and covered in jizz (mostly my own I should think, but one mustn't rule these things out) if they win it all.

Another thing to add here is that teams in the low seeds could be performing up to their true talent level or they could be underperforming due to injuries a la Detroit. Running into the latter in the playoffs can be a recipe for an early exit too.

 

[MoGator71]

Another thing to add here is that teams in the low seeds could be performing up to their true talent level or they could be underperforming due to injuries a la Detroit. Running into the latter in the playoffs can be a recipe for an early exit too.

 
For me the big X factor is always the goaltending. And as good as Detroit is playing right now, they're not going to ouplay the Bruins over a 7 game series. And Jimmy Howard isn't going to steal a series either. Niether is Bobrovsky, despite his Vezina*. Halak and Holtby have some experience in that regard, and I could see the Caps being dangerous. That's about it for first round upset potential, unless for some strange reason the Rangers stumble and end up as WC2 since Lundqvist is obviously elite.
 
The real danger for Boston probably starts in round 2. I'm not sure why, but Montreal seems to give them all sorts of trouble, and Tampa is very good and has a goalie in Bishop who I've seen steal games the Lightning had no business winning.