Bruins Takeaways: Back-to-back Wins Boost Playoff Odds In Huge Way

Bruins takeaways: Back-to-back wins boost playoff odds in huge way originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins had themselves a very productive weekend with back-to-back wins against quality opponents that have significantly boosted their odds of reaching the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Bruins defeated the Minnesota Wild 6-3 at TD Garden on Saturday and then erased a 3-0 third-period deficit to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in a shootout on the road Sunday.

Let’s dive in to a few takeaways from these important victories for the Bruins.

Playoff odds rocket higher

The Bruins’ chances of reaching the playoffs stood at 70 percent, per MoneyPuck’s model, about a half hour before puck drop of Saturday’s game against the Wild.

After two straight wins, those odds are now up to 90.9 percent with Boston having eight games remaining.

The Bruins could still make the playoffs as a top-three team in the Atlantic Division. They trail the third-place Canadiens by only two points but also have one more game played than Montreal.

The most likely path to the playoffs is via the wild card. Boston enters Friday in the East’s first wild card spot with a four-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets and a six-point edge on the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators. Both the Red Wings and Senators have a game in hand on the Bruins.

The B’s have the fourth-best remaining schedule, per Tankathon, but they are now on pace for about 100 points.

Pavel Zacha could reach 30 goals

Pavel Zacha might have one of the most team-friendly contracts in the NHL. The veteran forward has a $4.75 million salary cap hit on a deal that doesn’t expire until after the 2026-27 campaign.

He is outperforming that contract this season with a career-high 28 goals, which ranks third-most on the team. He needs one more point to hit 60 for the first time in his career. Zacha has been especially hot lately with 13 goals in his last 13 games, including the tying tally with 11 seconds left in the third period of Sunday’s win over the Blue Jackets. He also scored a power-play goal and picked up an assist versus the Blue Jackets in a three-point outing.

There are 31 line combos in the league that have played 275-plus minutes this season, and the Arvidsson-Zacha-Mittelstadt trio has the fourth-best goals scored percentage of that group. The Bruins are scoring 70.6 percent of all goals (38 for, 16 against) when that trio is on the ice, per MoneyPuck.

If the Bruins make the playoffs, this line needs to maintain that level of success (or close to it) for the team to potentially win a round.

Viktor Arvidsson addition paying big dividends

Making trades is what Bruins general manager Don Sweeney does best, and giving up a 2027 fifth-rounder to acquire Viktor Arvidsson from the Edmonton Oilers last summer has been a stroke of genius.

Arvidsson scored the shootout winner Sunday, and he also tallied an assist on all three of Boston’s goals.

Arvidsson has 47 points in 62 games, which is 20 more than he had in 67 games for the Oilers last season. His 3.04 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 is fourth-highest among all players who have played 700-plus minutes, per Natural Stat Trick. Two of the three players ahead of him — Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon — are former Hart Trophy winners.

It’ll be interesting to see if he re-signs in Boston when his contract expires after the season, but for now, he’s one of the Bruins’ most important forwards.

Jeremy Swayman making Vezina Trophy case

Swayman started both games this weekend. It was the third time in his career he made starts on back-to-back days. Even though these two performances wouldn’t rank among his best of the season, he still made plenty of clutch stops to give the B’s a chance to win.

No goaltender has played better than Swayman over the last 20 games. During that span he ranks No. 1 with 19 goals saved above expected.

Swayman, for the whole season, ranks No. 3 in goals saved above expected and No. 3 in wins above replacement. These stats are even more impressive when you consider the Bruins have been a bottom-third team in defense for a lot of the season. He’s not getting a ton of help in front of him, and yet the 27-year-old netminder is still playing at an elite level.

New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin is the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy. He would be a deserving winner. But if the Bruins make the playoffs, it would be a huge mistake if Swayman is not voted one of the three finalists for the award.

He’s the No. 1 reason why Boston has a strong chance to return to the postseason.