Boston Bruins

Boston Bruins

The last time the Bruins were seen on Causeway Street, they were heading into the Christmas humbled after getting walloped in back-to-back games by Ottawa and Montreal. Those two losses were part of a disappointing 1-3-1 homestand that put a dent in their previous home-ice dominance and put them in arrears in their chase for a playoff spot. On Thursday, the B's found at least some of their home mojo back with a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames at the Garden.

When the Boston Bruins made the Stanley Cup Playoffs 15 times in an 17-year span from 2007-08 through 2023-24, the foundation of their success was being a strong defensive team. Sure, having elite goaltending during much of that span helped a lot. But the Bruins were really tough to play against, and opponents had to earn every Grade A scoring chance. The B's allowed the fewest goals and ranked No. 1 in penalty kill percentage over that 17-year run.

Bad decisions and bad penalties turned what could have been a great road trip into a so-so one in the Bruins' trip finale in Seattle on Tuesday. The B's dropped a 7-4 decision to the Kraken and finished the trip at 2-2-1. It was clear that the B's did not have their thinking caps available right off the bat but it was a fateful final two minutes in the second period, when they gave up two self-inflicted goals, that did them in.

Back on March 7, 2025, the Toronto Maple Leafs made one of the biggest deadline moves of the season: they traded forward Fraser Minten, along with a 2026 first-round pick (top five protected) and a 2025 fourth-round pick, to the Boston Bruins in exchange for veteran defenseman Brandon Carlo. Carlo arrived in Toronto to help improve a solid defensive core, offering size, shutdown ability, and penalty-kill experience.

The Bruins placed defenseman Hampus Lindholm on injured reserve and activated defenseman Henri Jokiharju off the IR ahead of Tuesday night's game against the Kraken in Seattle (10 pm). The moves were expected after it was learned on Monday that Lindholm was going to miss some time, though the injury is thus far undisclosed. It is not clear when he suffered the injury. He played 22:47, including a couple of shifts in overtime, in the B's 3-2 OT win in Vancouver on Saturday.

None of the six Bruins players have ever played in the Winter Olympics. Many of them, however, do have international experience. Jeremy Swayman was the starting goalie for Team USA when it won gold at the 2025 IIHF World Championships last May. It was the Americans' first gold medal at the tournament in 92 years. Charlie McAvoy played in the 4 Nations Face-off for Team USA last February but was able to play in the final vs. Canada due to injury.

After the Bruins drafted James Hagens seventh overall, speculation began to swirl that he could play alongside Zellers at this year's IIHF World Junior Championships. Given Zellers' strong start at the University of North Dakota, where he has tallied 15 points in 18 games, and Hagens' equally-as-strong showing at Boston College, this theory has come to fruition in the last week or so at the World Juniors.

The U.S. trailed 2-0 in the first period and then 4-3 late in the second period before Hagens tied the score in the final minute of the frame. Team USA built on that momentum when Hagens scored just 18 seconds into the third period. It was the United States' first lead of the game. The Americans doubled their advantage a few minutes later when Will Zellers scored a power-play goal. It ended up being the game-winning tally after Slovakia scored to make it 6-5 later in the period. The U.S. held on for a 6-5 victory to improve to 3-0-0 in the preliminary round of the tournament.

Jonathan Aspirot, who has been out of the lineup since Dec. 11 with an upper body injury, was on a second pairing with Hampus Lindholm in the B's morning skate at the Saddledome as the struggling Andrew Peeke moved down to a third pairing with Mason Lohrei. The top pair of Nikita Zadorov-Charlie McAvoy remained intact. Coach Marco Sturm termed Aspirot a game-time decision.

Unfortunately, things happened here this morning at the airport and guys haven't really skated for four days almost and haven't even had a workout. Hopefully we'll go through this game without injury. We're asking a lot from the guys to come in and be ready to play but it's not going to be easy, so we've got to make sure we're going to be careful. We're going to prepare them like we always do. We're not just coming here because it was on our schedule. We want to leave here with two points. Mentally it's going to be a little bit of a challenge.

This year has been one of tumult for the Boston Bruins. Just two years after finishing with a record 65 wins, the organizational tear-down began in March. So far at least, that turnover has not translated into the doom cycle that many had expected as the B's have somehow remained competitive while waiting for some of their higher end prospects to arrive.

For the Boston Bruins to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2026 after finishing with the NHL's fifth-worst record last season, they needed Jeremy Swayman to have a bounce-back campaign. And Swayman has actually played quite well through the first 37 games of the season. He has a 14-9-1 record with a .906 save percentage and a 2.78 GAA. Those stats don't jump off the page, but context is important:

The Bruins were feeling very good about themselves just a week and a half ago. Today, with the archrival Montreal Canadiens in town for the final game before the Christmas break, they are in soul-searching mode. Such is life in the standings tighter than skinny jeans Hoping to bank points on their five-game homestand, they are just 1-2-1, with three straight losses. And the last L left a mark.

The Elite Ice Hockey League, the top level of hockey in the U.K., doesn't get a lot of big names. NHLers who have washed out of North America tend to head to the Continent: Sweden, Finland, Russia et al., all offer more money, better facilities, and a bigger spotlight for a pro to, perhaps, play their way back to the NHL. So it's a rare day when an EIHL team signs a 17-year NHL veteran.

"I think the adversity helped us early on."