It’s abundantly clear at this point that the Bruins are going to be focused on defense and goaltending as the bedrock of any success they are going to enjoy this coming season.
The hiring of Steve Spott signals that the B’s will rely heavily on the power play for offensive health and wellness, of course, and most positive offensive developments will revolve once again around David Pastrnak in the prime of his career.
But it looks, sounds and feels like the B’s are going to clamp things down defensively under Marco Sturm, and the new Boston bench boss has hinted that some kind of system to clog up the neutral zone might be in the immediate future. It makes sense given the personnel that the Bruins are going to have on their roster and how they are going to have to grind in low-scoring games on a lot of nights this coming season.
But the neutral zone trap has never been confused with a fun, or enjoyable, style of play at any level.
Sturm was recently on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast and was asked about the 1-3-1 trap he’d helped deploy in LA, or the “Ambien Attack” as they call the sleepy, boring clog-up-the-neutral-zone style of play at the NHL level that can frustrate both opponents and fans hoping to watch a fast and frenetic style of play.
Is the ‘Ambien Attack’ coming to the Boston Bruins?!
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) July 30, 2025
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“That was our foundation with the Kings because the players believed in and then [the Kings players] just got bored. They wanted more, we got better and then there was a switch [in systems],” said Sturm to the podcast. “I think it always depends on where we are at as a team. I think if you are in a total rebuild, like we were with the Kings, then it is the right neutral zone system to play.
“If you are a Stanley Cup contender, then I don’t think it would probably be a good fit, either. So I think I go by my roster and I go by personnel, the players that I have. We’ll see. Right now, I’m looking at a few more options. Last year the Kings and Ontario switched to a 1-2-2 and that worked out too, so we’ll see. I will surprise you.”
All of that may change in the future once James Hagens reaches the NHL ranks, or if the Bruins are able to hit it massively big in next year’s free agent class with Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Kirill Kaprizov, Kyle Connor, and Cale Makar, among others potentially on the open market amongst a star-studded group.
One of the real positives from Sturm’s initial press conference with the assembled media was his thoughts about being flexible with his approach and being willing to adjust and change his systems according to the personnel on the roster.
“I did my homework, and I watched a lot of [Bruins] games and [there are things] I'm going to address. I'm going to put a system; I already have my system kind of in my in my head. I'm going to put a system in place where players will have success,” said Sturm at his introductory press conference back in June. “I want [the players] not just doing neutral zone forechecks, for example, just because that's what I always did [with the LA Kings].
“No, I got to wait first for a little bit [to see] what comes out, what kind of players I'm going to get [on the roster at training camp], and I'm going to adjust to it. There are different things I can tweak a little bit. I think the overall thing, it's already in place, but now I’ve got to find out what kind of players I have and I'm going to react [to that].”
That was actually one of the real downsides with a guy like Jim Montgomery, who everybody agrees is a strong head coach who has had solid results during the regular season. But his inability to adjust within a playoff series – or adjust last season with a Bruins group that clearly couldn’t flourish in the high-risk, offensive system that he preferred – was a real issue that also cropped up during his time with the St. Louis Blues after landing on his feet following his dismissal from the Black and Gold.
And it sounds like Sturm’s willingness to adapt and adjust was one of the qualities that endeared him to the Bruins in the first place. For a guy whose game was predicated on speed, skill and offense when he was a goal scorer during his playing days, a conservative, somewhat boring defensive system would be counterintuitive as Sturm’s system.
But it would also allow him to sell a more defensive mindset to players who shared his offense-driven thinking from his playing days in Boston and other places where he totaled almost 500 points in his career.
“There's structure, there's communication, there's a reestablishment of culture, knowing offensively that he was an offensive player [and as a coach] trying to convince an offensive player that has gaps in his games that you can't get to the NHL until you do both sides of the ledger. You know there's a reward there,” said Don Sweeney. “And knowing a player going through that, to convincing a player to go through that, and then seeing him at the NHL level have success, that's rewarding to Marco, because he's been on that path. So, all those things were resonating with me in the hiring [process], throughout the hiring process and keep going back each time you have that conversation [about hiring Sturm].”
It remains to be seen if the Bruins truly and fully embrace “the Ambien attack” or simply utilize neutral zone systems to slow things down while they get their feet underneath them coming off last season’s dumpster fire. But it feels like Sturm is going to oversee a system that slows things down and gets back to basics while Bruins management can put into place a more talented roster equipped to run and gun with the big dogs around the league.
And that’s for the best while the retooling takes place that should eventually see guys like Pastrnak, Hagens and Co. leading the B’s into their next golden era.