Last season was an interesting one for the Boston Bruins. It was the first one following the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and there were a number of questions surrounding the depth of the roster, and whether or not their Stanley Cup window was closed. The 2023-24 season was one of growth for the team and that proved the future is in good hands with the core that they’ve been able to transition to over the past few seasons.
Expectations are higher for the Bruins going into 2024-25 than they were last season. They’ve proven that they are still a very talented roster and that the championship window is still open. The front office has addressed issues this offseason with their free agency signings and they’ve gotten grittier and tougher.
While 2023-24 did not result in a Stanley Cup, the season was very positive for the Bruins. It provided the team with a number of important lessons that they can take into this upcoming one.
Give Prospects a Real Opportunity
Last season, the Bruins had several rookies make the roster out of training camp, including Matthew Poitras (2022 second-round pick) and Johnny Beecher (2019 first-round pick). Additionally, Mason Lohrei (2020 second-round pick) appeared in 41 regular season games as a call-up and appeared in 11 postseason games, where he was one of the top defensemen for the team. Boston has struggled to get the most out of their prospects in the last few seasons and has had one of the lowest-rated prospect pools in the NHL.
Some of the struggles have come from a lack of opportunities. Yes, the Bruins have not had the highest touted, most talented prospects, but there has also been a lack of legitimate opportunities for young guys to prove themselves. They can’t make a real impact if they only play one or two games and average less than 10 minutes of ice time. Last season felt like, not only were guys like Poitras, Beecher, and Lohrei developed enough for the NHL, but they also got a real shot and opportunity to prove themselves. They had their ups and downs but were given chances to work through them up in the NHL instead of immediately being sent back down to the American Hockey League (AHL) at the first sign of struggle. It only benefited the players and the team to give them more chances.
In 2024-25, I hope the Bruins continue to give legitimate opportunities to their prospects. There are some intriguing guys in the pipeline right now who will be threats to make the roster out of camp. It will be a particularly telling year for a guy like Fabian Lysell, the Bruins’ 2021 first-round pick. Other guys to keep an eye out for are Riley Duran and Georgii Merkulov.
Especially in the early games, the Bruins’ front office shouldn’t shy away from giving real minutes and chances to some of their young guys. The core group for the foreseeable future seems to be in place with David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Elias Lindholm, and Jeremy Swayman, but they still need to build out the rest of the team around those guys. If those players can come from within, the team will benefit from not having to overpay at free agency and the trade deadline every season to try and find those final pieces like they did circa 2017 to 2022.
Don’t Force Line Combinations
Head coach Jim Montgomery spent a lot of time playing with the lines in the first half of 2023-24, which is the time to do so if you’re going to try different combinations. But if something isn’t working, the Bruins can’t force it. For example, the Brad Marchand, Pastrnak, and Pavel Zacha line, while good on paper, was not quite as successful as one would want from a top line. They tried it, and then made adjustments when it became apparent that change was needed. They kept Zacha and Pastrnak together, who have proven the last two seasons to have great chemistry, and moved Marchand to play with Charlie Coyle in a move that benefited everyone.
With a new (presumed) top center in Lindholm, there will be adjustments that need to be made in the early months of the season. Training camp will also be important to evaluate who he has the most chemistry with on the ice. Not being rigid with line combinations will once again be important to the Bruins in the early months of the season, and should continue if things start to get stagnant or rough in the latter half.
If something isn’t working, the players, coaching staff, and front office all need to roll with the punches and make adjustments. It’s been a huge benefit to them in the past two seasons and allowed them to place players where they are best suited in the lineup, even if it’s not where it was expected.
Additionally though, when a combination is working and the chemistry is there on the line, Montgomery should avoid messing with that as much as possible. There were a few questionable personnel decisions made in the second half of the season and the start of the playoffs. As the adage goes, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Once the chemistry and line combinations are figured out, if there’s nothing glaring wrong with it, let it go. On-ice chemistry is such an important part of a team’s success and can often be a difference-maker between teams that win a Stanley Cup and lose.
Emphasis on Special Teams
The Bruins’ penalty kill was excellent and consistent throughout the entirety of the 2023-24 season. They finished sixth overall in the league, stopping 82.5 percent of opportunities while playing a man down. Part of that is due to the strength of the goaltending every night for Boston last season, but they also have excellent penalty-killers in Brandon Carlo, Marchand, and Coyle, all of whom are still with the team entering 2024-25. The penalty kill was a strength for this team in 2023-24 and a huge momentum changer that should continue to be emphasized in this upcoming season.
The power play was not as successful, but they did seem to get some stretches where it was finally clicking late in the 2023-24 season and into some of their playoff games. The Bruins’ lack of consistent scoring in general was an issue and a big part of the reason why they were eliminated in the second round, and the power play is where those issues tend to be the most glaring. They finished 12th in the league with a conversion rate of 22.2 percent when playing a man up, six points below the Tampa Bay Lightning’s league-leading 28.6 percent.
Going into the 2024-25 season, getting the power play worked out should be one of the earliest things the team and coaching staff attend to. It was an issue that lingered throughout 2023-24 and was one of the most glaring issues for this roster. The importance of getting it figured out early cannot be emphasized enough.
Being Better in 2024-25
The ultimate goal for the Bruins is obviously to improve on their finish from 2023-24, and that isn’t impossible in 2024-25. After two seasons of first-round exits in the playoffs, the team took a step forward last postseason to reach the second round. Moves have been made to address issues from last season, and on paper, they should be better, even with the goaltending depth taking a step back with the trade of Linus Ullmark.
The Bruins’ fortunes will come down to learning from their weaknesses in 2023-24 and improving on them. Success is within reach for the Bruins in 2024-25, but we’ll see how and if they rise to the occasion when the season starts on Oct. 8. They’re set to take on the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, the reigning Stanley Cup Champions that eliminated Boston from the 2024 postseason.
