The Boston Bruins have been one of the NHL’s best teams for the past decade, consistently finishing near the top of the Atlantic Division and the NHL standings. Every time it seems like they might be due for a step backwards, they always find a way to come back stronger and keep winning.
That long-awaited step back might finally be here, and some of the flaws on this roster are already starting to show themselves early in the season.
With their 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, the Bruins fell to 3-4-1 through their first seven games. More concerning the record is simply the way they are playing.
The defense has been very ordinary, the goaltending has not been as good as it has been in years past to cover up for it and the offense is taking a massive step backwards and has been among the worst in the NHL.
Let’s start with the defense and the goaltending, because the Bruins’ calling card over the past 10-15 years has always been their defensive approach and stellar goaltending. There were already some cracks in the defensive foundation during the 2023-24 season as they were consistently ranked among the worst teams in the league when it came to allowing scoring chances and expected goals.
The thing that bailed them out was one of the league’s best goaltending duos in Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
So far this season the Bruins are just as mediocre as they were a year ago defensively with little change in their metrics, allowing the 22nd most expected goals per 60 minutes and the 15th most high-danger scoring chances.
The problem is that Ullmark is now playing in Ottawa due to an offseason trade, and Swayman has not yet matching the level of play he showed over his first three years. The goaltending is not bailing the defense out the same way and more pucks are ending up in the back of the net.
If there is a silver lining here it is that Swayman should bounce back at some point and should be able to help cover up for the defense in front of him.
The bigger concern is with the team’s offense, which has been very poor with some discouraging signs for what could be ahead the rest of this season. After Thursday’s game they averaging just 2.8 goals per game, placing them among the bottom-10 in the NHL. But even more discouraging is the fact they have been one of the league’s worst teams in terms of generating shots and chances. Especially during 5-on-5 play.
After Thursday’s game they rank 29th in the NHL in shots per 60 minutes, 28th in expected goals per 60 minutes, 29th in scoring chances per 60 minutes and 29th in high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes (all numbers via Natural Stat Trick). The biggest part of consistently scoring goals is generating chances. If you are not generating chances, you are not going to keep scoring goals.
The Bruins lack a true No. 1 center and do not really have many great finishes outside of David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. All of these problems are going to add up and potentially put the Bruins into a situation where they have to compete much harder than they may have anticipated for a playoff spot.
