Roughly at the quarter mark and looking at regulation wins as a barometer of making the playoffs, it doesn't bode well for the Bruins.
There are 11 teams who have between 9 and 12 regulation wins (Winnipeg, NJ, Minnesota, Florida, Carolina, Vegas, Toronto, Rangers, Washington, LA, and Dallas.
There are NO teams with 8 regulation wins.
Next up we have 3 teams with 7 wins. Vancouver who've been missing their No.1 goalie but also has Quinn Hughes a true superstar D and is having an MVP level year. Colorado who also had goaltending issues but are starting to settle in and have the league MVP, their own superstar D, and Rantanen who is criminally underrated. And Tampa Bay who have Kucherov, Hedman and Vasielievsky and knocked off Winnipeg tonight. You could argue those 3 teams have the 3 best D-men in the NHL and a combination of elite and MVP level forwards, usually a recipe for success. One team has a goalie that just set a new record for fastest goalie to 300 wins ever, passing Jacque Plante.
I'll toss in the Oilers (who only have 5 after a shaky 2-4-1 start) are back on track and have this guy named Connor McDavid, you may of heard of him. Half-decent hockey player. His buddy Leon Draisaitl. Not bad either.
That's 15 teams and their are only 16 playoffs spots. Things can change but safe money says these could very well be 15 of the 16 playoff teams come April. Do any of them look terribly vulnerable (injuries aside)? Luckily for the Bruins, 8 of the 15 are out west. I would legit feel safe putting money down on who the 8 playoff teams coming out of the west are.
Reality is even though its thought to be early, they are already essentially in an 8-team dogfight with the group of teams with 3-6 regulation wins in the east. Right now, only Montreal appears completely out of it. I'd include Pittsburgh in that too but what if they can Sullivan and get that new coach bump? So I'll put them in the battle royal for one last playoff spot in the east.
Oh and the team I think is their biggest competition for that final spot is Ottawa and we only gave them a legit No.1 goalie and they did keep the Bruins from getting a shot on net for 24 mins. last Saturday so I'd have to wager the Sens might be a better team than the Bruins. At the very least Ottawa and Ullmark claiming that final playoff spot over the Bruins feels like a very "Bruin-ish" story.
They won't do it and Marchand won't like it, but if they were smart they'd face this cold hard reality start selling off their UFAs and guys with one year left like Coyle and Peake (if they can be moved at all) and get ahead of the market as much as possible. Recoup whatever assets they can and re-tool over the summer, because a complete rebuild is not coming nor should it.
