At 5-2-0 with a plus-10 goal differential, the Bruins can look like a team that has everything rolling. They sit atop the Atlantic Division, and from a distance, that record has the feel of a club that has answered early questions about its scoring depth under Marco Sturm.
But the wins have not all come cleanly. Boston has already had games where the Bruins were leaned on heavily and lived to tell the story because Jeremy Swayman bailed them out. Tuesday night was another one of those nights, even in a 6-3 win over the San Jose Sharks that opened a four-game road trip in Northern California.
The final score said comfort. The game itself said something else.
San Jose controlled the shot battle 38-26 and piled up 53 attempts at 5-on-5, compared with 37 for Boston. A big reason was the Bruins’ trouble clearing the puck and their inability to consistently turn defense into offense. The Sharks’ speed helped force that problem, but Boston also made life harder on itself.
Special teams were part of the story too. San Jose scored two of its three goals on the power play, and the third came just seconds after a Nikita Zadorov penalty ended, before he could even get back into the play. The Bruins’ penalty issue has not gone away, and it keeps showing up in games where the rest of the score line makes it easy to miss.
That is the unsettling part for Boston right now. The Bruins have repeatedly covered up those flaws with Swayman’s play, especially his ability to make high-danger saves at key moments. The one time they could not survive it was the only game they lost with Swayman in net, against the Ottawa Senators 10 days ago.
Now comes the stretch that could make these problems impossible to ignore. Boston still has three games left on the trip: the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, and the Dallas Stars next Tuesday. Those matchups could put the Bruins’ turnover issues, penalties, and shot-margin problems right back in the spotlight.
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 Fans Just Got A Real Crease Decision To Watch
After the Bruins dealt Joonas Korpisalo to the Rangers in July, the backup job behind Jeremy Swayman has become one of the more interesting spots on the roster. Michael DiPietro has been in line for the role ever since, and head coach Marco Sturm said the club is ready to give him a real look during the upcoming weekend road trip.
Swayman has handled the bulk of the work early this season, including a 35-save effort in a win over the Sharks, so the Bruins are not exactly forcing the issue at the top of the crease. Even so, the next stretch will offer a cleaner read on how Sturm wants to manage the position, and on how much trust Boston is willing to place in DiPietro when the schedule tightens up. [Read more 🡒]