This isn't your father's Boston Bruins.
In fact, it's not anyone's, because for the first time since 1997, the Bruins are in last place in their division, having lost 10 of their last 11 games.
This unfamiliar era of Bruins hockey is limping to the finish of the 2024-25 season as Boston dropped a 6-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday, a club that hasn't made the playoffs since 2011.
“We just didn’t sustain any offensive zone time in the second period, probably under one minute and they had close to three,” Bruins coach Joe Sacco said to NHL.com. “... I give them credit because they were on top of us, but we still have to find ways to handle the pressure in better situations. … We’ve talked about this for a while now, and it's about playing behind the forecheck and establishing your own forecheck, creating some more zone time for yourself.”
The season has been a downward spiral since head coach Jim Montgomery was fired in November.
The St. Louis Blues hired Montgomery immediately after. They are 34-16-6 ever since and are amid a 12-game win streak.
Then Bruins management decided to blow up the roster at the trade deadline last month; they have gone 3-10-1. General manager Don Sweeney shipped off core pieces such as captain Brad Marchand, Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo.
Remaining tenured Bruins players, such as Elias Lindholm, have been left to pick up the pieces.
“This is our job. We’re getting paid a lot of money to do this," Lindholm said after a 4-1 loss to the Canadiens on Thursday. "There’s people out there who are struggling and we get paid millions to play hockey, it shouldn’t be hard to find some sort of motivation.”
Bruins are active in free agency
Last summer, the Bruins made a splash in free agency. The team signed Elias Lindholm, as well as Nikita Zadorov, to long-term contracts. Both arrived after stints with the Vancouver Canucks. While the additions didn't stop the Bruins from a disastrous year, we can expect Boston to be active once again this year.
Assuming the Bruins don't want to enter a full rebuild, there are limited other pathways to getting better in the near future. If the team tries to build through the draft and solely wait for young talent to develop, it'll be a longer process. Plus, the Bruins aren't likely to part with future assets in a trade. So, free agency is the best route to try to improve quickly.
The team does have quite a bit of cap space, setting them up to have a shot at attracting a bigger name. Based on the Bruins' offensive struggles this year, targeting a top forward or two is the most likely bet. The team ranks 29th in the NHL in goals per game, and David Pastrnak is their only high-producing forward. As a result, look towards an active free agency period for the Bruins.
