The culture in Boston needs to be reestablished.
The Bruins culture is a real thing. It’s been that way for decades, and was exemplified throughout the 2024-25 season as Boston endured extreme change.
As one of the more successful franchises in the NHL, the disappointing season was new territory for many of the Bruins players. However, through it all, the Original Six franchise never lost sight of what it means to wear the Spoked-B.
“It starts with the whole core group, right?” David Pastrnak said at his end-of-the-season availability on Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena. “These guys that are here on the long term, and a lot of experience, we were missing Hampus (Lindholm), and we added Elias (Lindholm) and Nikita (Zadorov), who were new to this team, but at the same time, veterans in the league with a lot of experience. So, having Hampus back next year and Charlie (McAvoy), it’s a pretty strong core group. We are going to work together and lead by example.”
McAvoy missed the final 25 games of the season after sustaining a serious shoulder injury in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. However, the veteran defenseman is looking forward to establishing the team’s culture with the other emerging leaders in the room.
“That starts very quickly after this,” McAvoy said. “Getting together and establishing what we want, what our pillars are going to look like, what we want the culture to get back to, and how we’re going to do it.
“What an opportunity, right? What an exciting challenge that’s going to be for us, not just us, but a few other guys, and we’re going to take it head-on. We’re going to do everything that we can. You can’t do it by yourself. We’re going to do it together and we’re really excited about the opportunity and the challenge, what it presents and how we can be part of the solution.”
Hampus Lindholm not only views culture as a must-have for any franchise but also considers how he will impact the club’s future.
“I think culture for me comes about the belief, too. We need everyone in here to believe in it,” he said. “When you play for the Boston Bruins, for me at least, you only borrow that jersey. You go out (on the ice), and I’m only borrowing it, and I want to put it in a better place for the next guy.
“I think you can lean on all the history and everyone in the past that’s been in that jersey, and that should give you encouragement, that should give you confidence of all the history we have, the great fans we have, and I think that’s what culture comes down to.”
Lindholm continued: “We need the young guys coming up, we need the new guy that’s going to come in and the guys in here to just really value that. See it as a confidence booster. And really buy into what it takes to do that daily stuff, to create that great culture.
“Because it doesn’t create (culture) by just getting talked about. Culture gets created by doing stuff and especially doing stuff when no one’s watching. And then you start getting the compliment of having a good culture, and I think that’s where we need to start.”
