Marco Sturm begins his first season as head coach of the Boston Bruins amid a partial rebuild after a 27th-place finish. The roster lacks certainty beyond the top line of David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie. General manager Don Sweeney added Viktor Arvidsson, Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly and Mikey Eyssimont to inject grit and physicality. Sturm emphasizes fundamentals and a cultural reset toward toughness and competitiveness. The team aims to be harder to play against after underperformance led to Jim Montgomery's firing and a summer turnover that included trading established veterans.
"But I've always said that the one thing that's never really changed is you need to be tough. I think it's still in the game," said Sturm in a conversation with the Herald. "If you look at the Panthers, the fourth line did a really good job of having guys who can not just fight but can also play the game. That's the difference. The toughness and the grit that we brought to this team, they can do both."
"But at the station in which this team currently resides - and, yes, it is in a variation of a rebuild - Sturm is emphasizing the basics. Bottom line, the Bruins have to be harder to play against than they were last year, when under-performance forced the firing of head coach Jim Montgomery first and later a fire sale of some of its most entrenched players, including captain Brad Marchand."
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