Bruins continue building historic season with NHL wins record

PHILADELPHIA-- The feeling that settled over the shoulders of Jim Montgomery as the final buzzer sounded on the Boston Bruins' 63rd win of the season was not relief or mere joy. Not really. It was gratitude, an emotion close to the heart of the Bruins coach. It was a sense of calm, of what was supposed to happen, happening.

"For me, gratitude and just a peaceful feeling," Montgomery said. "Just everything has felt right."
In Boston, it has been a season of remarkable games, remarkable statistics, a relentless march through all comers. With a new coach in Montgomery and a captain in Patrice Bergeron making what could be his last stand, it has often felt like the Bruins are on a path straight into the history books.
They often have been.
On Sunday evening, at Wells Fargo Center, the Bruins once again wrote their names, etching 63 wins atop the list of single-season wins records for a team,
besting not just the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3
, but also besting the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning and the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings, earning a small piece of immortality.
And that was how it came, piece by piece.
"We just kept playing the way we know how," forward Charlie Coyle said. "You take care of each night and each day and then that slowly adds up."

From that first win, on opening night against the Washington Capitals, to their 63rd, against the Flyers.
To get there, fittingly, they relied on the wizardry of David Pastrnak, who tallied the 15th hat trick of his career, ending in his 60th goal of the season and the 300th goal of his career. Dozens of hats littered the ice in the minutes after he scored, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Tyler Bertuzzi 39 seconds into the third period.
Pastrnak became the second player to reach 60 goals this season, with Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers at 64. It is the first time that two players have topped 60 in the NHL since 1995-96 when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins did.
And it was a number that had, in a manner of speaking, been lodged in his head.
"There is one great point that actually [Brad Marchand] told me many, many years ago, when I was young," Pastrnak said. "He said, 'You have to always aim 10 goals higher than you think you can get.' So I was aiming at 60, wasn't really thinking I would get there."

The forward joined Phil Esposito as the only two Bruins players to ever reach the mark. Esposito surpassed 60 goals four times with the Bruins, scoring 76 goals in 1970-71, 68 in 1973-74, 66 in 1971-72 and 61 in 1974-75.
Pastrnak had previously hit his career high of 48 in the COVID-19-shortened 2019-20 season in which he played 70 games. This season, he has 109 points (60 goals, 49 assists).
"Confidence, creativity and competitiveness," Montgomery said. "Those three Cs exude from him and then you combine that with an attitude of he's a team-first guy and he cares about and loves being a Bruin. I think his teammates, as you could tell, when he got two, I think everybody was passing the puck to him."
Ultimately, it was a celebration of the team, of Pastrnak, of all the things that have been accomplished over a long and unrelenting season, a season that has surpassed all of the wildest dreams of everyone in and outside the organization, which will have the chance to tie or pass the all-time points record (132, the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens) in their final two games, on Tuesday against the Capitals and on Thursday against the Canadiens.
When it was all over on Sunday, as Montgomery was having his moment of peace, Swayman pointed to the sky. It was a gesture acknowledging Red Gendron, the former coach at the University of Maine who was a mentor of Swayman's. He died, unexpectedly, exactly two years ago at 63, on April 9, 2021.
"That was in the back of my head all day," Swayman said. "I wouldn't be here without him. He's taught me more than just to be a good hockey player, but a better person. And anyone that's come across him knows that, that he wants to know you as a person and make you better all around.
"It was amazing how it all worked out to make an NHL record on this day. I miss him a lot."

It was a night that, in so many ways, seemed preordained.
The only downside was that many of the players who had gotten the Bruins here weren't in Philadelphia for the record-setting night, with the Bruins opting or forced to leave behind Bergeron and goalie Linus Ullmark, forwards David Krejci and Taylor Hall, defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Dmitry Orlov, for rest or injury reasons.
That didn't make it any less special. Though Swayman did have to complete his traditional postgame hug with emergency call-up Brandon Bussi instead of close friend Ullmark, a Vezina Trophy candidate as the best goalie in the NHL, it worked out, once again, as if the Bruins had drawn it up.
Though it wasn't exactly a record the team was targeting to start the season, it was one that made more and more sense as the season went on, as the wins piled up and the team inched closer to the Lightning and the Red Wings.
"It shows the kind of team we have," said Coyle, who opened the scoring 47 seconds into the game. "Before the year, to be honest, you're not hoping you get the most wins in history. It's just not something you think about. You want to make sure you're playing the right way and build as best you can so when playoff time comes, you're ready to go. That's the real season there."
That season is coming, in a week.
At that point, this record will fade into the background, as it did for both the previous record-holders, neither of which won the Stanley Cup.
"Obviously, the record is amazing, but we're building toward something bigger than the NHL record," Pastrnak said. "That's our focus."