The Boston Bruins have gotten a jolt from their young players early this season, and that has made Tuesday’s late-game decisions against the Dallas Stars stand out even more.
Through the first few weeks of the 2026-27 NHL regular season, Boston has raced to a 7-2-1 record, sitting first in the Atlantic Division, second in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the NHL. That start comes after an offseason that brought in JJ Peterka and began with Charlie McAvoy unavailable for the first six games because of a suspension. It also came with a major question for head coach Marco Sturm: which young players would stick, and how much trust would they get?
So far, Sturm has leaned into the kids, and the production has followed.
Fraser Minten and Matt Poitras are tied with David Pastrnak for the team lead with four goals apiece. James Hagens and Marat Khusnutdinov have three each.
Minten leads Boston’s young group with eight points, which also puts him in a tie for second on the team. Hagens is right behind him with seven points, tied for third.
Poitras has six points, tied for sixth, and Khusnutdinov has five, tied for eighth.
The help hasn’t stopped up front. On defense, Mason Lohrei and Frederic Brunet have given the Bruins useful minutes and real offense from the blue line.
Lohrei has five points, also tied for eighth on the team, while averaging 17:56 of ice time per game. Brunet has three points and is averaging 16:57.
In other words, Boston’s younger players are doing more than just filling space - they’re showing up in the scoring column and holding their own across the ice.
That’s why the end of Tuesday’s game against Dallas raised some eyebrows.
The Bruins led for most of the night after goals from Poitras and Hagens, but the Stars pulled even just over midway through the third period. From there, Sturm leaned heavily on his veterans. In the final five minutes of regulation, Hagens and Poitras did not see the ice, and Brunet and Lohrei were pulled for the last four minutes.
There’s nothing unusual about a coach shortening the bench when a game tightens up. Veteran players often get the nod in those moments, and with Boston’s early success, there’s no reason to pretend the approach has been broken. Sturm has earned plenty of credit for the way this team has started.
Still, the bigger picture matters. One of the advantages of giving young players meaningful minutes early is building not just confidence, but experience for what comes later.
The Bruins are going to need Poitras, Hagens, Lohrei, Brunet and others in late-game situations and in the postseason, too. Giving them those reps now makes more sense than waiting until the pressure spikes and hoping they’re ready on the spot.
That’s especially true because Boston has already seen how this season can reward the approach. The Bruins picked up seven of a possible eight points on their western trip, going 3-0-1 through the California stretch before facing a Dallas team that had allowed just 13 goals in eight games entering the matchup.
So while there’s room for the coaching staff to tweak how it handles those final minutes, this is hardly a crisis. Sturm has been excellent, and the results have backed that up. If the Bruins find themselves in that same kind of game again, it would not be surprising to see a different late-game plan.
For now, Boston can feel good about where things stand as it turns to Thursday’s game against the Nashville Predators, the team’s first home game since Oct. 10.
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The concern is not just the penalties themselves, but the broader impact they have had on Bostons five-on-five play. The Bruins can live with some risk if Zadorov is tilting the ice in their favor, yet there has been a growing sense that the balance has been off lately, enough to lead to disciplinary scratches and renewed questions about how much rope he should get. For a team trying to build on its strong start, the issue is no longer whether Zadorov matters, but whether the Bruins can keep tolerating the version of him they have been getting. [Read more 🡒]
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The rankings bump followed quickly, with Boston climbing in both major national power lists, but the more interesting part is what comes next. The Bruins now get to bring that momentum back home for a stretch that includes Nashville and San Jose, a chance to see whether this fast start is merely a strong opening or the beginning of something sturdier. [Read more 🡒]