<\/p>\n
LAST SEASON<\/p>\n
The Boston Bruins<\/a> might lament their measly one Stanley Cup this century (we should all be so lucky), but they have dominated the 2000s by most measurements. No team has more regular-season wins over the past 25 years, and only the newfangled franchises in Vegas, Seattle, and Utah have conceded fewer goals. Nothing lasts forever, though, not even for the NHL\u2019s (black and) gold standard.<\/p>\n Just two years removed from the most dominant regular season of all time, the B\u2019s cratered, tying the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> for the third-fewest wins in the league and the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> for third-worst goal differential. Everything went wrong in a season during which chemistry, health, and goals were hard to come by.<\/p>\n Boston\u2019s woes started in the summer, when talented netminder Jeremy Swayman missed camp during a contract holdout. A visibly rusty Swayman finally debuted on Oct. 10, but by Nov. 19, the already sputtering Bruins had axed coach Jim Montgomery in favor of longtime assistant Joe Sacco. The \u2018new coach bump\u2019 landed with a thud, and GM Don Sweeney finally waved the white flag in March by shipping out grinder Trent Frederic, veteran centerman Charlie Coyle, blueline staple Brandon Carlo, and, most painfully, captain Brad Marchand ahead of the trade deadline.<\/p>\n With top defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm injured and a toothless attack notwithstanding David Pastrnak, Sacco\u2019s skeleton crew won just five of their final 18. Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs says things will be different in 2025-26<\/a>, but does he believe it? A frustrating offseason <\/a>has left more questions than answers.<\/p>\n KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES<\/p>\n Additions<\/p>\n Viktor Arvidsson, RW Departures<\/p>\n Parker Wotherspoon, D (Pit) OFFENSE<\/p>\n Pastrnak was already known as a one-man band in Boston after Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired, but there\u2019s no overstating Pastrnak\u2019s importance to the Bruins\u2019 wilting attack now that Marchand is gone: the Czech superstar\u2019s 106 points accounted for more than 47% of the club\u2019s offense. The Bruins are lucky to have \u2018Pasta,\u2019 a relentless volume shooter who has added elite playmaking to his game over consecutive 63-assist seasons.<\/p>\n The primary beneficiary of all those helpers last season was Morgan Geekie, who set career highs in goals and points for a third consecutive year, this time at a top-six rate (33 G, 57 P in 77 GP). Geekie might never find twine with 22% of his blistering shots again, but his soft hands and high work rate make him a great foil for Pastrnak; it\u2019s no coincidence the versatile forward\u2019s new contract runs concurrently with Pastrnak\u2019s through 2031.<\/p>\n That\u2019s also when top center Elias Lindholm\u2019s contract runs out, but there are already a fair few Bostonians wishing he\u2019s someplace else by then after a paltry 47-point debut. Still, the former Calgary pivot\u2019s line with Pastrnak and Geekie crushed it after Sacco finally gave them an extended look, winning its minutes 15-2 and bossing nearly 65% of expected goals. The same combination should give new coach Marco Sturm a starting point for his forward group.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the only easy answer Sturm will find up front. It\u2019s possible that new guy Viktor Arvidsson rediscovers his goal-scoring touch (15 G last season, down from 26 G 82-game average), that two-way winger Pavel Zacha brushes his off his worst offensive season (47 P in 82 GP) as a Bruin, and that both men have enough finish and compete to their game to bring the best out of inconsistent playmaker Casey Mittelstadt (83 A from 2022-24). Even if everything falls into place for Zacha, Mittelstadt, and Arvidsson, that still leaves two lines bereft of proven NHL scoring.<\/p>\n Despite a nearly $7-million offseason investment in veteran forecheckers Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly, and Mikey Eyssimont, there isn\u2019t a single 10-goal or 20-point player in the Bruins\u2019 bottom six as it\u2019s currently constructed. McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Mason Lohrei (33 P in 77 GP) will need to cover the difference from the blueline.<\/p>\n DEFENSE<\/p>\n Boston\u2019s 26th-ranked scoring defense should be a far more formidable group with any luck at all. Last season, Lindholm went down in November with a knee fracture, and McAvoy never returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off from what the team characterized as a medical gaffe<\/a> by the Team USA\/Minnesota Wild <\/a>staff. Contact breaks and medical malpractice don\u2019t tend to be recurring issues, so McAvoy and Lindholm should figure into more than 67 games apiece, let alone combined.<\/p>\n With Carlo out of the picture, it makes sense for Sturm to use both his big guns in one shot. Lindholm\u2019s recovery speed on the left side of the ice could free up McAvoy to blow up plays in the neutral zone with his physicality. Though they\u2019ve rarely functioned as full-time partners in recent seasons, there should be ample chemistry left over for the duo: from 2021-24, the Bruins outscored opponents 39-20 with McAvoy and Lindholm on the ice at 5-on-5.<\/p>\n Nikita Zadorov was signed last summer to enable McAvoy\u2019s offensive creativity, but Zadorov didn\u2019t find his groove until McAvoy\u2019s season ended. The big Russian with the big personality eventually thrived as the Bruins\u2019 top D-man, even as the team crumbled around him. Zadorov finished the year with an impressive +25 rating, 22 clear of second place among Boston skaters (min. 19 GP).<\/p>\n At his worst, Zadorov is a minor penalty machine who pulls himself out of position for big hits. At his best, he\u2019s a crease-clearing lightning rod that can log 20 hard minutes a night. Zadorov\u2019s surprise chemistry alongside late-season addition Henri Jokiharju, an efficient if physically unimpressive puck mover, could garner top-four usage. That would relegate Lohrei to the bottom-pairing at even strength, which seems like a good thing; after posting a league-worst -43 rating, Lohrei could use some sheltered minutes.<\/p>\n Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha remain Boston\u2019s most effective two-way top-six forwards, while Jeannot, Kuraly, and forechecker Mark Kastelic should help tilt the ice in Boston\u2019s favor further down the lineup.<\/p>\n GOALTENDING<\/p>\n Blame the team in front of him all you like, but the first year of Swayman\u2019s new contract went poorly. The 26-year-old Alaskan\u2019s busiest season to date was also his worst (.892 SV%, league-high 176 GA), and his offseason theatrics didn\u2019t help with the optics.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all water under the bridge as long as the Bruins\u2019 masked man proves last season was nothing more than a blip. Swayman, who had the fifth-best SV% in the NHL from his debut through 2023-24 (.919), certainly looked more like himself in international duty as Team USA swiped the gold at the IIHF World Championship.<\/p>\n Some of Swayman\u2019s struggles were related to a 58-game workload in the absence of his old friend Linus Ullmark. While the Bruins are certainly paying Swayman like a full-time starter, paring that number back to an even 50 might increase his effectiveness.<\/p>\n That would mean more work for 300-game vet Joonas Korpisalo in his second year under the tutelage of Boston goalie whisperer Bob Essensa. \u2018Korpi\u2019 was fine last season but didn\u2019t have the sort of career renaissance so many of Essensa\u2019s charges seem to enjoy. Korpisalo needs more game rhythm, and a 60\/40 split could be in the best interests of all parties involved.<\/p>\n COACHING<\/p>\n Firing Jim Montgomery was a desperate move by a front office that had, led by Sweeney and President of Hockey Operations Cam Neely, painted itself into a corner. The St. Louis Blues<\/a>\u2019 overnight turnaround after bringing in Montgomery made that clear, but there\u2019s no going back now. It\u2019s Marco Sturm\u2019s time, and that could be a good thing. The German has one of the strongest CVs<\/a> of any head coaching hire in his class, rookie or otherwise.<\/p>\n After steering his home country to a momentous Olympic Silver Medal in 2018, Sturm spent four seasons assisting Willie Desjardins and Todd McLellan, two of the sharpest X\u2019s and O\u2019s minds in the sport, with the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>. The Kings put Sturm in charge of the AHL Ontario Reign in 2022, and playoff appearances followed in each of his three seasons at the helm. Neely and Sweeney are hoping Sturm can bring some of L.A.\u2019s commitment to five-man defense to his new\/old team.<\/p>\n Sturm will be joined by Essensa, in charge of the goalies for the 23rd-straight season, and defensive shotcaller Jay Leach, who was reportedly a finalist for the big chair, behind the bench. Stanley Cup champion Chris Kelly is also sticking around, but will likely lose the whiteboard to veteran special teams assistant Steve Spott after a brutal season in charge of the power play (15.2%).<\/p>\n ROOKIES<\/p>\n The man everyone wants to see pull on the black and gold this season is James Hagens, who plays just 20 minutes down I-90 from TD Garden at Boston College. Hagens was once the presumptive No. 1 pick in the class of 2025, but his good-not-great draft year and slight stature dropped him to seventh overall. He\u2019s still a potential first-line center, and a big sophomore year could tempt the Bruins to approach Hagens with an ELC this spring. He is by far the most interesting prospect in their pipeline.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to disparage distant runner-up Fraser Minten, a promising center in his own right. Minten will tangle with fellow young two-way players Johnny Beecher and Marat Khusnutdinov for the final center spot but should have the inside track for the job. Of the three, Minten, a physical two-way player with 21 NHL games under his belt, has the highest ceiling by some ways.<\/p>\n On the wings, an uninspiring 12-game cameo probably won\u2019t be enough to dissuade Boston\u2019s decision-makers from once again banishing former 2021 No. 21 overall pick Fabian Lysell to AHL Providence. Lysell hasn\u2019t shown the explosiveness of a top-six NHL player and doesn\u2019t have the physical tools to cut it as a forechecker.<\/p>\n If Lysell is a high-profile disappointment, Dans Locmelis has all the makings of an out-of-nowhere success story. Locmelis once profiled as the sort of hard-working, unspectacular player that makes for good organizational depth out of the fourth round. That was before the Latvian followed up a sophomore breakout at UMass with a six-game scoring explosion for Providence (3 G, 12 P) and another four goals at the IIHF World Championship. Locmelis is quickly working his way up the Bruins\u2019 thin prospect rankings. Is an NHL debut in his future?<\/p>\n Czech sniper Matej Blumel is another sleeper to watch. Blumel couldn\u2019t crack a loaded Dallas Stars<\/a>\u2019 top-nine but picked up an impressive 89 goals in 197 games for their AHL affiliate over three seasons. With nothing left to prove in the \u2018A,\u2019 Blumel could force his way onto Sturm\u2019s second power play.<\/p>\n BURNING QUESTIONS<\/p>\n 1. What youth movement? Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, and Brandon Carlo were veteran, stalwart players, the kind who usually only get traded to make way for the next generation. In Boston\u2019s case, the next generation is a bunch of guys who aren\u2019t half as talented as the last generation and not all that much younger. Kuraly, Jeannot, and Eyssimont weren\u2019t brought in to warm the bench. The top six looks locked in, and fourth-liner Kastelic earned an extension last January. That means there are only two roster spots left for some combination of Minten, Khusnutdinov, Blumel, Beecher, Lysell, and playmaking 21-year-old Matt Poitras. Bruins\u2019 fans who had hoped to watch the youth brigade this season had better check which channel carries the Providence games.<\/p>\n 2. Are the Bruins too worried about the Panthers? The Bruins hate the Florida Panthers<\/a>. Who doesn\u2019t? They\u2019re the league\u2019s dirtiest team and sorest winners. To Boston, though, they\u2019re so much worse than that. They ruined the best season ever. Ended Patrice Bergeron\u2019s career. Stole Brad Marchand. Worst of all, they\u2019re meaner than the Bruins, a constant reminder that Cashman and O\u2019Reilly don\u2019t live here anymore. Sweeney and Neely recruited tough guys Zadorov (in 2024) and Jeannot, as well as an insufferable pest in Eyssimont, to close that gap. Aren\u2019t they forgetting something? To outmuscle Florida in the playoffs after two failed tries, Boston has to first make the playoffs. Unless Jeannot has another 24-goal outburst lying around, that could be an issue for a roster so light on weapons.<\/p>\n 3. Who\u2019s next to the chopping block? What do Jim Montgomery, Bruce Cassidy, and Claude Julien have in common? They all won the Jack Adams Award behind the TD Garden bench, and they all got their walking papers from Sweeney and Neely. Cassidy and \u2018Monty\u2019 have done more than OK for themselves since the divorce. Maybe the front office with the league\u2019s worst draft record should bear a little more of the blame for Boston\u2019s inability to win another Cup and, more recently, for the team\u2019s sharp descent. We know Sweeney\u2019s not going anywhere: the ink on his new contract isn\u2019t dry yet. What about Neely? The legendary power forward hasn\u2019t done his legacy any favors in recent years, and is as guilty as anyone for the club\u2019s infatuation with muckers and grinders.<\/p>\n PREDICTION<\/p>\n In Swayman, McAvoy, and Pastrnak, the Bruins still have important Stanley Cup building blocks. After last year\u2019s firesale and a dreary summer, they don\u2019t have much else. It\u2019s hard to envision Boston jumping into the playoff field or even separating from perennial also-rans like the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> and Buffalo Sabres<\/a>. A total collapse would be preferable for draft position to a sixth-placed finish in the stacked Atlantic Division, but neither outcome is terribly unlikely.<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n POST SPONSORED BY bet365<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n Recently by Anthony Trudeau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST SEASON The Boston Bruins might lament their measly one Stanley Cup this century (we should all be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-89857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Tanner Jeannot, LW
Sean Kuraly, C
Mikey Eyssimont, RW
Jordan Harris, D
Alex Steeves, LW
Matej Blumel, RW<\/p>\n
Cole Koepke, LW (Win)
Vinni Lettieri, RW (Tor)
Jakub Lauko, LW (Cze.)<\/p>\n