The Bruins get right back at it Saturday night, and they’ll have a familiar opponent waiting at TD Garden.
Boston, now 13-5-1, wraps up its season series with the Minnesota Wild, who arrive at 14-3-4 and riding a 10-game point streak at 8-0-2. The Wild haven’t lost in regulation since Oct. 22 in Calgary, and that surge has pushed them to the top of the Western Conference.
For the Bruins, this is a chance to shake off a rough one. Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Canadiens ended a four-game winning streak and snapped a seven-game home winning streak, handing Boston just its second home loss of the 2026-27 regular season.
It also knocked the Bruins out of first place in the Atlantic Division for the first time since Oct. 16.
They now sit one point behind both Tampa Bay and Montreal.
Boston has already seen Minnesota once this season, and that meeting didn’t go well. In the Bruins’ third game of the year, Michael DiPietro made his first start as a Bruin in a 4-1 loss, and the Wild went 2-for-3 on the power play. That matters because Minnesota’s man advantage has been one of its biggest weapons all season, ranking sixth in the league, while Boston’s penalty kill sits 14th at 78.5%.
“We’ll see tomorrow,” Sturm said on Friday when asked about the benefit of seeing Minnesota already this season. “I think it definitely helps because in (Minnesota) it was a tough game, too.
They have some really good weapons, and again, at least we know what to expect. But the biggest thing for us is [to] get back to our game and play a really tight-checking game against some really good weapons.”
The Bruins skated at TD Garden on Friday morning, with the group lined up as follows:
Forwards
Defensemen
Hampus Lindholm - Charlie McAvoy
Nikita Zadorov - Will Borgen
Jonathan Aspirot - Mason Lohrei
Jeremy Swayman is the expected starter in goal. He enters at 9-4-1 with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
Minnesota was already in Boston after traveling yesterday, and the expected Wild lineup features Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy on the top line, with Jesper Wallstedt listed as the likely starter in net. Wallstedt is 13-2-3 with a 1.94 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
Here’s how the special teams stack up:
Bruins power play: 18.0% (27th)
Bruins penalty kill: 78.5% (14th)
Wild power play: 27.4% (6th)
Wild penalty kill: 79.7% (11th)
The season series is on the line Saturday, with Boston looking to even things up after that Oct. 3 loss in Minnesota. After this one, the Bruins’ schedule turns quickly with games against Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, Winnipeg and Toronto over the next two weeks.
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The timing only sharpens the issue, because Mittelstadt is playing his way into a conversation Boston cannot keep postponing. His contract is expiring, and the Bruins have to weigh his fit against the push to keep younger players moving into bigger roles and shape the roster around a broader strategy. He has earned a real look, and the next step will say plenty about how aggressively Boston wants to build around what he has shown so far. [Read more 🡒]