It feels like it’s probably appropriate at this point for many Bruins naysayers to fully admit and cop to the fact that this B’s team is not who they thought they were going to be.
Pretty much every hockey talking head painted this group, prior to the season, as a talent-challenged bunch – especially amongst the forwards -- that would struggle to score goals and would have to win games by a 2-1 score every single night based solely on robust defense and consistently elite goaltending from Jeremy Swayman, along with the usual brilliance from David Pastrnak.
The Bruins can play competitive hockey up until the Trade Deadline, but after that it’s “Miserable for McKenna”. pic.twitter.com/o5Ct9fXS8g
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) October 10, 2025
And there were a lot of folks saying “told you so” when the Bruins lost six in a row amidst a hellish stretch where they were playing top teams and experienced a challenging West Coast trip all without the services of one of their top D-men in Hampus Lindholm.
Instead, the Bruins are a decent 15th in the NHL offensively, a solid 13th in the NHL on the power play with a strong 22.7 percent scoring clip and they have been more than adequate offensively up and down the lineup. Viktor Arvidsson scored his fourth goal of the season in Boston’s 4-3 shootout win over the Islanders at UBS Arena, and Marat Khusnutdinov continued to play the surprise hero in a top-6 role with the game-tying score and a nasty “shoulder shake” move in the shootout to win the extra point.
MARAT KHUSNUTDINOV AKA THE GREATEST HOCKEY PLAYER OF ALL TIME NASTY SHOOTOUT WINNER pic.twitter.com/k2CBGqrTYi
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 5, 2025
“I thought it was a good overall effort, on the road especially,” said Zadorov. “We had a message before the game that if we want to make the playoffs we need to be .500 or better on the road, so I think that is our goal for sure going forward into the season.”
Pastrnak has undoubtedly been brilliant as the only point-per-game player on the Bruins team with seven goals and 18 points in 15 games, but there are three other guys on the B’s roster in double digits (Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, Charlie McAvoy) right now. Couple that with a team that’s made some good adjustments while getting accustomed to a new defensive system, and the Bruins are a team sitting in a top-3 spot in the Atlantic Division that may just go into Thanksgiving in a playoff spot in a super-tight Eastern Conference that’s rife with parity this season.
“I really believe if you look at our lineup and you look at our roster, this is everything,” said Marco Sturm earlier this week of the defensive buy-in that the Bruins have started seeing in the last few games. “We are not, like, elite-elite, but we have some weapons and we have some grinders, and we have a good mix. But we need to be structured and we need everything to buy in, absolutely, and in that last game [against Carolina] if we don’t do that against them then we’re not gonna survive.
“Not just against Carolina, but in this league pretty much. We have to play a certain way in order to have success and that’s what I believe. Hopefully [the players] can see it too.”
And incidentally, the Bruins are now a very impressive 6-1-0 this season with Hampus Lindholm healthy and in the lineup for a defense that’s stabilized along with replacing Mason Lohrei with Jonathan Aspirot in the lineup.
The bottom line, though, is that the Bruins are playing good two-way hockey and the wins and losses are reflecting that as they take care of business against teams like the Islanders and Sabres in the last couple of games.
“We knew whoever makes more mistakes is going to end up short,” said Sturm. “We made some mistakes, unfortunately, but I’m glad we came back and won the game in the shootout.
“It shows the character in our room. I think overall we had a good feeling today, even after they scored a goal. The bench was good and the guys were good.”
On top of all of that, the Bruins also continue to be hard to play against both at home, and on the road where they picked up their first win since opening night in Washington. First overall pick Matthew Schaefer showed his skating and skill level throughout the game, but he also got a “Welcome to the NHL” moment when he attempted to grab hold of Nikita Zadorov’s stick behind the Boston net after snapping his head back looking for a penalty call a couple of times during the same shift.
Zadorov after the game: “I looked at my PIMs last year and I need to get them up this year." https://t.co/cyJVADFJQD
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) November 5, 2025
That sequence started a teamwide brouhaha between the Bruins and Islanders and raised the emotion and energy level for the remainder of the game, a role that Zadorov has filled with gusto and aplomb this season while mostly picking the right spots to do it.
“I looked at my PIMs last year and I need to get them up this year,” said a smirking Zadorov. “We are a big, physical team that needs to create our own energy. The crowd was sleeping today a little bit, so I felt like we needed to create our own energy and get everybody going on the bench and get excited.”
It all amounts to exactly what Bruins President Cam Neely and Don Sweeney said this team was going to aspire to be prior to the start of the season. The Black and Gold are a “tough out” and they have shown the “piss and vinegar” on enough occasions already for those in the hockey world to know it’s going to be a pretty consistent basis for the way the Bruins are going to play this season.
It remains to be seen if it’s going to be enough for the Bruins to make the playoffs once the dog days set in and Boston’s depth gets tested, but it feels like hysterical preseason talk about the B’s being lottery-bound and in the sweepstakes for Gavin McKenna were really premature, and way, way off the mark.