The wind chill in New England has picked up. The clocks fell back this weekend. The New England Patriots are wrecking opponents left and right.
It's as sure a sign as any that fall is fully here in Boston. That also means, in a condensed schedule, business is about to pick up for the Boston Bruins.
Between now and December 1, there are 26 days. In those days, the Bruins will play an astonishing 13 games.
13 games over the next 26 days. That's right. After today, Boston has 13 days off and 13 games, including a trip to California.
Believe it or not, Boston's season is already 17% done. By the time November ends, the season will be 36.5% completed.
As it stands today, every single team in the Eastern Conference finds themselves at or above .500 entering a busy Tuesday night in the NHL.
After a summer where everyone tried to improve, there's not a single pushover to be found in the East. All that means is every single game counts that much more.
Take tonight against the New York Islanders, for example. The Islanders sit at 6-5-1 through 12 games, one point behind the Bruins, who sit at 7-7-0 through their first 14 games.
A regulation win gives Boston a three-point cushion over New York, while a loss sets them back behind the Islanders, with New York holding two games in hand.
It's a crystal-clear early-season swing game, one that's followed by another, with the Ottawa Senators in town on Thursday. Last week, Ottawa crushed the Bruins 7-2. Since then, Boston's won three straight and will be keen for revenge on the Senators.
Then comes a home-and-home with the so-far unimpressive Toronto Maple Leafs (7-5-1), another game against the Senators, then a Saturday night matchup in Montreal.
That's just the next 12 days. Six games, all Eastern Conference foes, five of them in-division. If that's not enough, Boston plays the Carolina Hurricanes again, then 48 hours later will play in California against the Ducks, Kings, and then the Sharks over the span of five days.
Two days later, on the eve of Thanksgiving, the Bruins finish off that California road trip with another trip to Long Island, to once again face the Islanders.
The Bruins get Turkey Day off, only just to host the New York Rangers for a 1 o'clock game on Black Friday, and then on the very next night, they'll host the Detroit Red Wings to close out November.
If you're exhausted just reading that, imagine how physically taxing this entire stretch will be.
The Bruins were built for this, intentionally. The talk of being a tough out, a team built to last physically will be put to the test.
Elias Lindholm remains out, listed as week-to-week, but it feels unlikely he's seen until after that California trip, at best. Boston has all the tools in their toolbox to make this work anyway.
Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa are not the most physical teams in the league. The ability to grind them down is there, especially playing Toronto and Ottawa multiple times. The California trip can be tough, especially in a condensed situation.
Still, the Bruins played hard with the Ducks, and if not for self-inflicted wounds, likely would've beaten the Ducks in TD Garden.
As daunting as the stretch is, there's a real opportunity. If Boston can win 7, 8, or even 9 of those 13 games, they'll be in prime position to make noise the rest of the season.
With how hot Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo are, there's plenty of reason to believe. Continue to get depth scoring, led by guys like Mark Kastelic driving play, and it only adds to the strength of this team.
On the contrary, if Boston struggles, and only comes up with 4 or 5 wins out of 13, then they'll find themselves in significantly more dire straits, with decisions to make on pending UFAs, such as Pavel Zacha.
The schedule doesn't ease in December, either. The Bruins will play 14 more games in December, at which point the season will truly be half over, with 41 games having been played already. Still, December is a ways away, and there's no way to gauge any expectations for it right now.
The Bruins will rightly focus on a one-game-at-a-time mindset, but there's no mistaking how daunting the next four weeks are. Six divisional games, nine games in-conference, all against teams within four points of each other come puck drop tonight.
If you take out the 8, 9 of those games will be between Boston and teams either tied with 14 points or within 1 point of them.
Eventually, some separation will come. But for now, the difference is infinitesimally small. At the very core, the Bruins indisputably control their own fate.