Three games into the season, the Bruins have already shown both sides of the story.
There’s plenty to like in the early returns. The younger players are getting real minutes.
JJ Peterka is looking like the player Boston believed it was adding. The defense has chipped in offensively.
And in net, Jeremy Swayman and Michael DiPietro have both delivered strong work.
But the old issues haven’t gone anywhere just yet. Slow starts, late goals, too many penalties and trouble finishing quality chances are all back on the radar. It’s still early, but those are the kinds of trends Boston has to get under control fast.
That split showed up in the back-to-back set, with Boston pulling out a 4-3 overtime win in Winnipeg before dropping a 4-1 decision in Minnesota.
What’s also becoming clearer is what this team may look like under Marco Sturm. The young players are being used.
The defense is joining the attack. There’s more pushback when games start slipping away.
The next step is consistency.
We are not that far removed from the season where when things got hard, they gave up.
A few individual performances stood out in particular. JJ Peterka added another beautiful goal and has opened his Bruins tenure in encouraging fashion.
James Hagens scored his first NHL goal. Marc Kastelic gave Boston the kind of timely physical presence it needs.
Michael DiPietro was strong even with the final score. And Sturm has shown a willingness to give his young players minutes - and trust them with those minutes.
The schedule now turns to Boston’s first Atlantic Division test against Ottawa, followed by games against Utah and Philadelphia. There are also a few roster decisions hovering in the background: Matt Poitras could be returning, Mikey Eyssimont is on waivers, Frederic Brunet still needs an opportunity, and Charlie McAvoy’s eventual return will create another choice on defense.
The Bruins have done enough to leave the opening stretch looking promising. The real test is still ahead: whether those encouraging signs hold up, and whether the familiar mistakes stay in the past.
In Other News...
Bruins Quietly Avoided A Costly Depth Loss With This Roster Move
The Bruins made a small roster move that carried some real meaning for their forward depth, placing Mikey Eyssimont on waivers and watching him clear without incident. Instead of losing him to another NHL club, Boston was able to send him to Providence and keep him in the organization, a quiet bit of business that helps preserve some flexibility as the season gets moving.
It also created the opening for Matthew Poitras, who got into the lineup for his season debut against the Senators and skated on the fourth line. Poitras finished the night with a plus-1 rating in Bostons loss, a reminder that even the most routine transaction can shape the look of the roster in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Trade Puts A Familiar Bruins Debate Back In Focus
A low-risk swap by Edmonton has brought a familiar Bruins conversation back into view, even if the transaction itself was made elsewhere. The Oilers added Filip Hallander, a 26-year-old center with limited NHL experience, banking on a player whose offense has translated more consistently in the Swedish Hockey League than it has at the games top level.
For Boston, the wider intrigue is less about the deal itself than what it says about the market for young, tweakable forwards and the sort of conversations that tend to follow them. The Bruins have been part of that discussion before, and whenever a move like this pops up, it tends to stir the same question again: which teams are willing to take a chance on upside, and which names keep surfacing when the talks start to heat up? [Read more 🡒]
Brad Marchand's Latest Injury Scare Looks Tough To Ignore
Brad Marchands latest injury scare is the kind of scene Bruins fans know all too well from years of watching him play through every kind of punishment. Now with the Panthers after Boston traded him before the 2025 deadline, Marchand had already helped Florida win its second straight Stanley Cup and later re-signed there to finish his career, so the veteran winger has become part of another contenders core.
His 2026-27 season took a worrying turn in a game against the Kings, where the left leg issue stood out as soon as he went down. Florida has not yet issued an official update on his condition, leaving a familiar Marchand storyline hanging in the air for now. [Read more 🡒]