PLYMOUTH – Optimism was high for the Boston Bruins last Tuesday afternoon as they kicked off the unofficial start to their season with the Bruins Foundation Golf Tournament taking place at Pinehills Golf Club in Plymouth.
The grass will probably never be greener, and the enthusiasm might not ever get quite as high to jump on the ice for practice as the players were chomping at the bit to get things going amidst the backdrop of a premium south shore golf course. Sure, they all had some fun watching B’s defenseman Henri Jokiharju get the first hole-in-one in the tournament’s relatively short history, and it was all for a good cause, raising money for the Boston Bruins Foundation.
JOKI HOLE-IN-ONE!!! 🚨
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) September 9, 2025
FIRST EVER IN BBF TOURNAMENT HISTORY! pic.twitter.com/7a8RlDFiuQ
But the players, the coaches and everybody involved with the Black and Gold seemed genuinely enthused to start filling up the currently blank canvas for this hockey club, and thereby further removing themselves from the bitter taste of last season.
“Everybody is in the same boat, we’ve been training all summer for this,” said Tanner Jeannot, who just arrived in Boston at the start of this week while getting to know his new Bruins teammates. “It’s been great to meet all of the guys and get rolling here. I’ve always wanted to play for an Original Six team and I feel like I’ve always kind of emulated their style in the way that I play, so I couldn’t be happier to be here and get things going.”
The big question, at this point, is just how modest - or high - the expectations should be for a hockey team that bottomed out last season.
The belief amongst the group is that getting into the Stanley Cup playoffs is a realistic goal while introducing a number of new parts, expecting healthy, bounce-back seasons from players like Jeremy Swayman, Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, and anticipating that players like Morgan Geekie found an attainable new level to their game last season.
As David Pastrnak said during the golf tournament, the expectations to make the playoffs go hand-in-hand with being a part of the Boston Bruins, regardless of how the previous season had gone down.
“I say it every year…when you play for an Original Six team, the standards are high,” said Pastrnak. “They always will be. Through my entire career, my goal at the beginning of the season is to make the playoffs before going on a run, and that isn’t going to change.
“You have to make people believe it and trust it, and obviously perform at that level. It’s a long way, but that’s our goal and that’s what we’re going to work at until the time comes.”
That’s a somewhat tall order in an improved Atlantic Division that still has the back-to-back Stanley Cup champ Florida Panthers in it among other solid teams, but it’s an undertaking that the Bruins are excited to get going.
“If we stay healthy, I think we are going to be really competitive,” said Don Sweeney. “As Marco said the other day, the standard has to be risen in terms of how competitive we are going to be and the structure that we need to play with. There are young players that we are looking to surprise us for lineup spots, but what we’ve done is insulate our group of guys with competitors from the bottom up.
“With that, hopefully that will allow some of the younger skill to emerge. But we’re going to be a much more competitive team and held to the standard that Marco [Sturm] has been talking about. It’s going to be on an individual level and as a collective level as well. On an individual level we had guys in place where their seasons didn’t go the way they wanted it to, but they’re going to have their partners back and they’re going to have the full components of their team back. And Jeremy [Swayman] is in as good a place as he’s ever been, as he mentioned the other day. But from Day One, the internal engine of how we’re going to compete and how we’re going to practice each and every day with the goal of being ready on opening night.”
Obviously, Lindholm and McAvoy avoiding last season’s injury issues will be vital to any sustainable success that the Bruins enjoy this year, so it was important to hear both parties giving themselves a clean bill of health this week. McAvoy did it while doing the rounds at the NHL Media Tour, and Lindholm hit the links fresh off flying in from Sweden at the beginning of this week.
“I think we have a really good squad. Looking around at the guys we’ve got a lot of good pieces with me and [Charlie McAvoy] both coming back from injuries, and if I look at our team I’m very optimistic,” said Hampus Lindholm. “I have a lot of confidence in this group and it’s going to be a fun year. I think people are going to underestimate us and we can use it to our favor being underdogs. We’ll get back to that Bruins hockey that everybody knows we can play.”
But so much of the Bruins’ fortunes this year is also going to fall onto the shoulders of David Pastrnak, who will need to continue to be brilliant coming off three straight seasons where he posted at least 43 goals and 106 points. There will be pressure on Pastrnak, McAvoy, Lindholm and others as the new leadership group ushering in a new era for the Bruins, and it will be without anybody wearing the “C” to begin the season.
“We’ve been forward about it and honest about it that we’re going to start without [a captain]. We have a veteran group of leaders that’s been meeting amongst themselves and eventually somebody is going to emerge that is going to the guy that should be our next captain,” said Sweeney. It comes with a lot of responsibility and [we want] to see a more organic, natural progression of it with a new coach. If one does it without everybody being on the same page about it then it can become awkward, and I think we just move forward with the established veteran group and see who emerges as the next captain of the Boston Bruins.”
It's been a long time since any Bruins team has been able to sneak up on opponents as underdogs at any level, but perhaps the Black and Gold have a chance of doing that while so many view this as a full rebuild for a B’s crew with a very strong existing core group to build around.
ONE TIMERS
• Hampus Lindholm said he’s been skating with a purpose since June, and that there will be zero limitations or barriers to cross in NHL camp to prove he’s completely recovered from last season’s kneecap injury.
“It’s been a really good summer,” said Lindholm. “I try to look at this summer as an opportunity to get stronger and bigger and to have an even better season this year than I’ve had in the past. Excited and full of energy to be back with the guys.
“I think my 14 years in the US have done me a lot of favors. I’ve come back from injuries before and I know how to do that. I’ve put in a lot of work this summer, got treatments in Stockholm that have helped me come back from injuries in the past and I’ve got a lot of good people around me. It’s a lot of work, but that gives me confidence going into the season that I’ve put in the work and it’s about going out and showing it on the ice.”
A chief part of the reason that things fell apart for the B’s last season, of course, was the injuries that knocked Lindholm out in November after he’d been Boston’s best defenseman to start the season. So a healthy campaign for both Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy is at the top of the list for a return to success for the Black and Gold this season, along with a return to form for goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
• Don Sweeney said that the Bruins have been in touch with some potential training camp invite options with camp set to open in the middle of next week, but it didn’t sound like anything was imminent with players set to go through their fitness testing and off-ice medical evaluations on Wednesday.
“We’re monitoring that market,” said Don Sweeney. “We’re perfectly fine, but we’ve had conversations with some guys that could create even more competition with our group in camp.”
For the record, quality NHL players like Matt Grzelcyk and Jack Roslovic still remain unsigned and haven’t accepted any training camp invites at this point with NHL camps set to open around the league next week.
• Interesting to hear Marco Sturm on the hiring of veteran assistant coach Steve Spott, as it sounds like the Bruins assistant coach and power play architect will be working very closely David Pastrnak after working closely with accomplished offensive guys like Joe Thornton in San Jose and Mikko Rantanen in Dallas during his tenure as a longtime assistant coach.
“First off all he’s a great human being and he’s a communicator as well. He’s very detailed and he’s been around for a long time,” said Sturm. “The biggest thing is that he’s worked with a lot of big buys…[Mikko] Rantanen, Jumbo Joe [Thornton], so he knows how to handle those guys and he’s had a lot of success as well. I’m glad he’s on our side and that he’s part of the coaching staff, and I think the players should be as well.”
