The Bruins won’t have much time to settle in once the 2026-27 NHL season gets rolling. Their opening stretch is packed tight, front-loaded with road games, and missing one of their top defenders right out of the gate.
Boston begins the season at home against the Rangers on Sept. 29, then immediately heads out for back-to-back nights on the road against the Jets and Wild on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.
The first month keeps coming fast after that, with the Senators in Boston on Oct. 5 and the Mammoth visiting on Oct. 8.
The schedule doesn’t really let up. The Bruins host the Flyers on Oct. 10, then head west for a long trip that starts with the Sharks on Oct. 13 and continues through the Ducks on Oct. 16, the Kings on Oct. 17 and the Stars on Oct.
- Boston then returns home for games against the Predators on Oct. 22 and the Sharks on Oct. 24 before finishing October with road dates at the Hurricanes on Oct. 27 and the Blues on Oct. 29, followed by a home game against the Blackhawks on Oct.
There’s also the Charlie McAvoy situation hanging over the first part of the season. He’ll miss Boston’s first six regular-season games while serving a six-game suspension for his slash on Zach Benson at the end of last spring’s Game 6 loss to the Buffalo Sabres that ended Boston’s season.
That means McAvoy won’t be available when the Bruins open against the Rangers or for the early road swing through Winnipeg and Minnesota. He is set to come back in time for the four-game road trip that begins with the first of two meetings against the Sharks in Northern California.
The rest of the early calendar has a few notable faces mixed in. Former goalie Linus Ullmark and the Senators come to town early, and former defenseman Andrew Peeke will return with the Mammoth. San Jose’s trip to TD Garden comes 11 nights after Boston’s first game against the Sharks, and the month wraps with that Halloween matinee against Chicago.
In Other News...
Bruins May Need To Cut Ties With A Familiar Center
The Bruins are again in the kind of roster conversation that tends to follow a team with more interesting young forwards than clean openings. James Hagens and Matthew Poitras are both pushing toward bigger roles, and Bostons current center picture has enough congestion that every available spot seems to come with a catch. The trick, as always, is finding a way to create room without upsetting the balance of the lineup.
One familiar option sits outside the organizations recent spotlight, even if he remains well known to Boston fans. Sean Kuraly has carved out a useful depth role since leaving the Bruins, and a reunion would come with the sort of practical appeal teams like when they are trying to manage a crowded middle six. The question is whether Boston can make the math work while keeping enough flexibility for the prospects it wants to see grow into the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Head Into Camp With One Roster Doubt Still Unsettled
As training camp draws closer, the Bruins still have a familiar-looking question hanging over the middle of their lineup. Elias Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, Fraser Minten and Sean Kuraly form the current top four down the middle, but the group still does not give Boston an obvious No. 1 center, and that uncertainty is part of what makes the coming weeks so important for the rosters shape.
The latest reminder came when the NHL Network unveiled its top 20 centers for the upcoming season without a Bruins player on the list, a notable omission for a team trying to reestablish itself among the leagues better clubs. There is also the separate matter of Matthew Poitras, who remains unsigned as camp nears, leaving Boston with one more unresolved piece in a position group that already lacks a clear answer at the top. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Need Lukas Reichel To Become The Answer At Center
Lukas Reichel arrives in Boston with a familiar kind of appeal for a team looking to solve a long-running question down the middle: enough talent to dream on, enough uncertainty to keep the price reasonable. The Bruins brought him in last March and have spent the months since viewing him as a possible middle-six center, the sort of low-cost swing that can pay off if the former first-round pick finally finds steadier production after uneven stretches with Chicago and Vancouver.
Reichels next step matters because the Bruins still need someone to seize that center role and make it look permanent, not temporary. There is at least some organizational comfort in the setup, with head coach Marco Sturm and other German players in the picture, and Boston is clearly hoping that familiarity helps bring out a more complete version of the player they think is still in there. The question now is whether this is the environment that finally turns potential into something the Bruins can actually rely on. [Read more 🡒]