Haggs: Playoffs Within Reach, But No Idea How Bruins Will Respond
BOSTON (CBS) - 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich had on CSNNE beat reporter Joe Haggerty Thursday morning to talk some Bruins.
A few weeks ago, Haggerty (and others) was right in his prediction that Ottawa was posing a bigger threat than Florida to catch Boston in the standings. Here we are now with just nine games left in the regular season, and the Senators sit as the eighth seed in the East and the Bruins are on the outside looking in.
"The Bruins have nine games left and 18 [potential] points. I really think they need 13 out of 18, or something like that if they want to surpass Ottawa and get that last playoff spot. That's doing some real work here over the last nine games, with the majority of them coming against very good teams. The only teams that are really out of it and should be W's for the Bruins are Carolina and Toronto of those nine games," Haggs told T&R.
"Everyone else is either in the playoffs or in the playoff hunt, including two more games with Florida who's still hanging around and could be a nuisance as the spoiler."
Boston hasn't played since Sunday, so they should be well rested and rearing to go tonight at home against Anaheim. Meanwhile, the Senators square off against the New York Rangers tonight, who are tied for the second most points (99) in the entire NHL. Anaheim (99 points) is no slouch either though, so a Bruins win and a Senators loss would really mean a lot for the reeling B's.
"[The Bruins] really need to get two points tonight and hopefully pass Ottawa and go ahead by a point. It's going to be back and forth [the rest of the season] just looking at the matchups," said Haggerty.
The B's have some ground to make up, and given how up-and-down they've been throughout the course of the season, Haggerty honestly has no idea how this Bruins team will respond to the challenge facing them.
"I'm not that optimistic after watching what was going on the last five games, and hearing players collectively call the team out. To be that way this late in the season in March when you're battling for the playoffs, that tells me that fundamentally there are things that need to be corrected with this team and there are problems there," Haggs told T&R.
"They don't get the benefit of the doubt from me that we're going to see their best over the next nine games. I think they have to prove it to everybody after what we've seen this season with the inconsistency."
Boston will look to right the ship Thursday night at TD Garden against the Anaheim Ducks.
Listen below for the full interview:
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