The past 10 years have been an incredible run for Boston sports fans, with the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics combining for six championships.

A new decade begins with all three teams in position to contend, all three believed to be among the best teams in their respective leagues.

Could this be the year the Bruins join the party?

It’s been a long run of cold winters for Boston’s hockey fans, 39 years since Lord Stanley’s Cup was hoisted in the Hub. There have been near misses, hundreds of playoff games played, and teams that were assembled with high expectations.

But there has been no Cup. In fact, there hasn’t been an appearance in the conference finals since the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1990. At that point, deep playoff runs were the norm for the Black and Gold, but no longer.

Since that series, when the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth Cup in seven years, the Bruins have won four playoff series. All of them were first-round victories.

In other words, there is a whole generation of Bruins fans who have never seen their team play a game after Memorial Day.

Which is why the team’s recently completed road trip is so noteworthy.

The Bruins went 6-0-0 on an 13-day trip, a swing that featured impressive wins against the Flames and Canucks. It was the best trip by a Bruins team since 1972, and you know what happened that year.

Any time you bring up ’72, a championship season when hockey ruled the region, you’ll get fans’ attention. Which is exactly what this team has done.

On Thursday night, the Garden was rocking and the Bruins were able to grind out a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay in their first home game in more than two weeks.

The win gave Boston sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference and got fans thinking about the spring.

A seven-game winning streak does not guarantee a championship. As we learned last year, a three-game winning streak in a playoff series doesn’t guarantee that.

The Bruins have brought us back to the rink in the past couple years, but they have left fans heartbroken at the end.

Boston needs to go deeper into the playoffs this year to satisfy those fans. Anything short of a conference title would have to be considered a disappointment.

The playoffs are still six weeks away. Right now, it’s time to enjoy the ride. The organization has done everything you can ask to put a contending team on the ice, beginning with management.

Can you ask for a better face of the franchise than Cam Neely? Can you?

The Bruins added three pieces to the mix before the trade deadline. Tomas Kaberle, Rich Peverly and Chris Kelly are all the type of players who can fill key roles in a playoff run.

The team moves the puck extremely well, and is once again playing defense as well as any team in the league.

Tim Thomas is having a Vezina-worthy season, and Tuukka Rask is back in the mix and playing well.

Can the team score enough goals? That was the issue last year, when the Bruins were dead last in NHL scoring.

This year is different: They are scoring 3.05 goals per game, fifth best in the league and a far cry from last year’s 2.39 goals.

The line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton scored nine goals on the six-game trip. There were stretches last season when the entire team couldn’t do that.

The Bruins have improved the offense while actually tightening up the defense.

Claude Julien, always a defense-first coach, has the team playing a system that is giving up 2.26 goals per game, second-best in the league for the second-straight season, and slightly better than last year’s pace.

In all, it’s a good time to be a Bruins fan.

Yes, the spring could end in heartbreak, but there is reason to believe it won’t.

And it’s been a long time since we’ve said that about the Bruins.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.