A Tale Of Two Teams: Why The Bruins Will Win A Title Before The Celtics

During the 2021-22 season, going into the postseason, the Boston Bruins were flying high after finishing first in the Atlantic Division, but like Icarus, they flew too close to the sun, and were bounced by the Carolina Hurricanes in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in seven games.

Despite making it to playoffs that season, along with the other five he was the head coach in Boston – one of which that included a run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2019 – Bruce Cassidy was fired following the season.

Then after searching for a new coach, both internally and externally, they landed on Jim Montgomery – who last served as an assistant coach under Craig Berube of the St. Louis Blues, and before that as the head coach of the Dallas Stars before being fired for a “personal behavior issue”.

The summer of 2022 went on without any issues until September rolled around when news of a scandal broke out with the Boston Celtics. Head coach Ime Udoka had allegedly had an affair with a female staff member, and had used “crude language towards a female employee”.

Immediately, the Celtics sprung into action, and investigated the issue. Before much was even found, they suspended Udoka and promoted assistant coach Joe Mazzulla to interim head coach.

The Celtics, however, were still riding the high of making it to their first NBA Finals appearance in 12 years. While they did wind up losing to the Golden State Warriors in six games, coming into the season, they came in as the favorites to win the title.

However, despite being considered the favorites to win the title at the beginning of the season, here is a few reasons why the Bruins will win a title before them.

5. The Bruins Play A Complete Game With No Quit

Before anything else is said, when the Celtics are on, they have a tendency to run away with the game, but when they’re not running away with the game they tend to play a bit more laxed with the ball, when in reality it should be the other way around.

The Bruins, on the other hand, play the game with a lead foot. When they’re winning, they’re not afraid to pummel a team (much like the Celtics), but when they’re losing, that’s when you’ve poked the wrong bear.

More often than not, they’re going to put up a fight and play a complete game. We’re not talking both sides of the puck (more on that later), we’re talking playing all 60 minutes like they’re the last minute of the game and they’re trying to score the game-winning goal – even when they’re up by five, six, or even seven goals.

4. The Bruins Have Buy-In That Is Completely There Every Night

Even with a new coach, and numerous question marks surrounding them starting out the season, the Bruins had tremendous buy-in from the word go. A majority of the team said they felt more encouraged to play “now that Cassidy was gone”.

At first, this puzzled many fans since Cassidy had just taken them to a Stanley Cup Final in 2019, and they thought that that would draw more players to Boston, but given the alleged more relaxed nature of Montgomery, players came to camp ready to go. They were even able to sign David Krejci to a new contract after he left for a year to play in Europe.

The Celtics, however, have a bit more concern there. There’s the occasional player, like Marcus Smart, Al Horford, or Blake Griffin who will step in and buy-in to this team’s culture, but it doesn’t appear from the outside that there is a draw to play for the Celtics like there should be after a team makes a run at the NBA Finals and came two wins short – especially considering Jaylen Brown’s recent comments to the New York Times and The Ringer.

3. The Bruins Have Multiple Vocal Leaders

The Celtics have a few people who can be looked at leaders like Horford, Jayson Tatum, and Smart. Maybe occasionally Griffin or Malcolm Brogdon, but the rest of them seem almost checked out or riding on the high horse of “we made it to the finals last year, we’ll be fine”. None of them, however, have publicly said they will be taking a larger leadership role, and leading them through the proverbial hell and back.

The Bruins, in contrast, have multiple vocal leaders in their locker room. From Captain Patrice Bergeron to veterans like Krejci, David Pastrnak, and Brad Marchand, all of them are not afraid to get in people’s face and tell them to “get their heads out of their butts and play some better hockey”.

Not only are those four not afraid to get in peoples’ faces, but they also know how to pick people up, and take accountability for the whole team and make the ENTIRE team better. With the Celtics, if one person – take Tatum, for instance – has a bad night, they will take it personally, and say that “I have to be better”, not “we have to better”, and they will proceed to work on their own non-efficiencies as opposed to the teams’ as a whole.

2. The Bruins Want To Win More

Now, this may sound like a blanket statement and it could apply to any team, but there is a big distinction here: the Bruins want to win more, whereas the Celtics just hate to lose. Doesn’t sound like a big difference? Let me break it down for you.

The Celtics hate to lose, and almost let the small losses get to their heads, and the big wins get them over the top. Whereas, with the Bruins, will put up a fight in every game they play in. When they’re on top, they’re on top by a lot and will keep going, as stated earlier, but even when they’re losing, they’re still going to, at the very least try, outshoot you or out-muscle you.

While both squads have not lost more than three games in a row all season which impressive on its own, the Bruins have lost in higher-leverage situations such as one-goal games, overtime, on the road, and to very good teams. On the other hand, the Celtics have lost to dwindling teams, or teams that are on the edge of having lottery picks, and teams that really they have no business losing to.

1. The Bruins Have Depth Where They Need To

Throughout the NHL season, most teams carry one goaltender, and have a backup for when they need a day off. The Bruins, however, are in a different class where they could start either Linus Ullmark OR Jeremy Swayman could start on any given day – giving them, essentially, a 1A and 1B on the depth chart, as opposed to a 1 and 2.

Not only that, but any injury (or suspension) to their top forwards such as Bergeron, Pastrnak, Marchand, or Krejci doesn’t seem to faze them. On all four forward lines, and all three defensive pairings, they seem to always have an answer if anyone goes down for any reason.

The Celtics, on the other hand, look like a completely different team when one of their key players is not playing or when they are having an off night. When Tatum isn’t shooting well, they make other silly mistakes like running into foul trouble. Or if Smart isn’t defending well, they try to compensate by scoring a lot of points. Sometimes it works in their favor, but other times it just blows up in their face and makes them look like a one-dimensional cog in the Boston sports scene.

Conclusion: The Bruins Are The Better Team

While there are other reasons that I could go on about why the Bruins are the better team that plays at TD Garden, I’ve decided to keep this short. What happens in the postseason is unknown, but both teams are flying close to the sun. Whether they keep their distance or fly too close remains to be seen.

As Vince Lombardi said: “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” That’s what both the Celtics and the Bruins need to take to heart now. The want to win.