The Boston Bruins have played the most games (21) of any team in the Eastern Conference and have played 21 games in a grueling 41 days to start a season that features a compacted regular season schedule thanks to the Winter Olympic break.
It’s a fact of life for everybody in the NHL this year, but it sure feels like the Bruins are getting it a bit worse than most as they prep for a West Coast trip to California this week after a tremendously busy opening six weeks of the season.
“Absolutely, and I guess we are not the only ones [being hit with injuries] if you look at a team like Montreal,” said Marco Sturm. “Some teams have been hit with injuries and some have not, but [the compacted schedule] is hard for my guys, and for everybody in this league.
“You guys see it too. Day off, then you play and then the next day you’re flying out to California. That’s crazy…and it’s why a lot of injuries will happen throughout the season. For us unfortunately a lot of good players are out and sometimes you need to be a little lucky [with that stuff] too, but we have confidence that other guys can come in and do the job.”
The busy schedule has allowed the B’s to settle into an early groove and it currently finds them in first place in the Atlantic Division, so it’s difficult to quibble too much with the circumstances based on the encouraging early returns. But the Bruins have also known that with that kind of rigorous, every-other-day game schedule comes a much greater chance of serious attrition and injuries that can push a hockey club to its breaking point.
That scenario is currently playing out with the Black and Gold, who dropped a 3-1 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night at TD Garden where Elias Lindholm, Charlie McAvoy, Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt were all missing from the lineup due to an assortment of injuries. Arvidsson is out on a “week-to-week” basis with a lower-body injury and there’s no word on the seriousness of McAvoy’s situation after he took a slapshot to the jaw in last weekend’s emotional win over the Canadiens.
Poor Charlie McAvoy pic.twitter.com/gnGbTDCy3g
— Demko, Sojourner of Truth (@Anti_Hegemon101) November 16, 2025
The injuries have led to Boston’s organizational depth being tested as AHL regulars like Alex Steeves, Riley Tufte, Jonathan Aspirot and Matej Blumel are all in the Boston lineup right now, and both the quality of missing bodies from the lineup and a lack of cohesion with new faces were both on display in a flat loss to Carolina.
It led to a lot of out-of-synch play, a number of rushes that ended up offsides, and the B’s having a lot of trouble moving the puck through the D-zone and neutral zone. Once the second period began, it didn’t feel like the Bruins were ever particularly close in this game.
“I would say probably the schedule if that were to be my guess. I’m never looking for excuses or if guys are in our lineup, but even I felt it today,” said Sturm. “It was an emotional night in Montreal the other night, and we felt it this morning and before the game [tonight] that it was kind of a slow day today. I could see it in their eyes. Mentally and physically not 100 percent today, that’s for sure.
“When you are not sharp, you are always kind of a step behind I feel like. It seems like we were late on everything and that’s the frustrating part. They didn’t do anything special, but with a schedule like this year you’ve got to stay mentally strong because we’re going to have a lot of games like that. You’ve got to find a way and the details really matter [in those kinds of games]. Those are the kinds of things we have to learn over the course of the year, that’s for sure.”
It was pretty evident on the ice as the Bruins were losing battles along the boards, seemed to be chasing from the second period on during the game and didn’t respond well to the Carolina pressure that they regularly apply whenever anybody faces the Hurricanes.
Even the power play, which has been tremendous for the Bruins this season, looked out of sorts while trying to fit in new pieces like Blumel, Tufte and a guy like Henri Jokiharju that hasn’t had much power play time previously this season. Tufte finally managed a PP goal in the closing seconds of the third period by cleaning up a loose puck rebound in front of the net, but by that point the replacement players hadn’t been able to inject much in the way of impact or energy with big guns like David Pastrnak (minus-2, one shot on net, five giveaways) clearly not at the top of their game.
Certainly, those AHL hopefuls are viewing it as an opportunity after coming up from the P-Bruins, and a player like Steeves has been making the most of it while keeping a pretty specific mindset during this stretch of games.
“I think the [mindset] probably should be guys licking their lips for the opportunity,” said Steeves. “Guys like David [Pastrnak] and [Morgan] Geekie, guys that have been here for a while like [Jeremy Swayman] doing it and carrying this team, but they can’t carry it every night and guys need to step up and help them,” said Steeves. “I think the mentality should be next man up and trying to grab hold of opportunities.”
The “next man up” philosophy is a good one to have and certainly the Bruins did a solid job of enduring their first round of injuries with players like Steeves and Aspirot stepping up to fill a role and keep the Black and Gold training chugging along.
But subtracting more top-6 forwards and a top pair defenseman from the group for the foreseeable future absolutely had a negative impact on the team’s performance on Monday night against Carolina, and means the B’s are going to be sorely tested on a West Coast trip where the Kings, Ducks and Sharks are all playing pretty good hockey right now.