The Boston Bruins didn’t need much time to flip the mood around. One week after consecutive 4-1 losses to the Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators left them at 2-2-0 and facing some real questions, they’ve ripped off three straight wins and suddenly look like a team finding its footing.
That turnaround also showed up in Bleacher Report’s latest NHL Power Rankings. Lyle Fitzsimmons moved Boston up eight spots to No. 12 after the Bruins beat the Utah Mammoth, Philadelphia Flyers, and San Jose Sharks to climb to 5-2-0 on the season.
The timing matters, too. Boston is in the middle of a four-game road trip, with three stops still ahead against the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and Dallas Stars. That makes Tuesday night’s 6-3 win over San Jose part of a much bigger stretch, and it came after head coach Marco Sturm had a couple of days to sort through some early-season issues following the loss to Ottawa.
A big piece of that early headache was the power play, along with the need to reshuffle the lines and get more offense moving. Sturm had to work through all of that while the Bruins were dealing with Charlie McAvoy’s six-game suspension, and Fitzsimmons made note of how Boston survived that stretch.
"The Bruins finished their six-game early-season purgatory without defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who was suspended for a slash on Buffalo forward Zach Benson in the playoffs. Boston was held to one goal twice, but scored 18 in the other four,'' wrote Fitzsimmons.
The offense has started to look a lot more dangerous over the last three games. Boston scored six against Utah, with three of those goals coming on the power play.
That said, those remain the Bruins’ only man-advantage goals through seven games. Two days later, they followed with five against Philadelphia.
Then came Tuesday’s outburst against the Sharks, when Boston scored six more. One early Bruins goal was waved off for goalie interference, but the scoreboard still reflected another big night. Over the last three games, Boston has lit the lamp 17 times while giving up just five, with Jeremy Swayman part of that sharper work on the back end.
Whether this becomes the kind of team that ends up among the eight Eastern Conference playoff clubs in 2026-27 is still an open question. But if the Bruins keep playing like this, they’ll be in the conversation. For now, an eight-spot jump in the power rankings is a loud sign that Sturm’s group has forced its way back into the picture.
In Other News...
Bruins Just Triggered Another Painful Leafs Trade Debate
The latest round of Maple Leafs second-guessing has landed back on a familiar subject for Bruins fans: how Toronto keeps measuring up in trades with Boston. TSNs Overdrive crew spent time picking apart the Leafs recent dealings with the Bruins, and the conversation quickly turned into the kind of postmortem that tends to linger in Toronto whenever a deal on this axis starts to age badly.
What made the segment sting was the sense that this is not just about one transaction, but about a history of moves that still color how both fan bases view each other. The hosts pointed to old Boston-Toronto trades as part of the backdrop, and the frustration around the latest one has only sharpened the debate over which side has actually come out ahead when these teams do business. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Fans Got Stuck With Frozen Frenzys Worst Scheduling Problem
Frozen Frenzy is supposed to be a showcase for the NHL, a one-night collision of wall-to-wall hockey that gives fans a reason to keep flipping from rink to rink. But for Bruins followers on the East Coast, the setup was less of a celebration than a scheduling test, with Boston lined up against San Jose so late that it asked a lot from anyone trying to stay with it from the opening faceoff.
Boston fans can handle an occasional late night, especially when there is something meaningful at stake, but this was the kind of window that made the leagues all-32-teams idea feel more clever than considerate. If the NHL wants the event to become a true centerpiece instead of a slog for part of its audience, there is a straightforward fix waiting in plain sight: move it to a Saturday or keep clubs closer to their own time zones. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Winning Streak Is Hiding A Problem This Road Trip Could Expose
Bostons fast start has them sitting atop the Atlantic Division at 5-2-0 with a plus-10 goal differential, but the early record has come with some warning signs tucked underneath it. The Bruins have had trouble at times with turnovers, penalties and getting outshot, even as the results have kept rolling in and the standings have looked strong.
The road trip ahead feels like the kind of stretch that can separate a hot start from something more sustainable. If Boston keeps putting itself under pressure in its own end and away from the puck, the margin for error gets a lot thinner away from home, where those habits tend to be easier to expose. [Read more 🡒]