It’s been quite clear for some time now that there is a different, better, and improved vibe to this year’s edition of the Boston Bruins.
They are winning more, obviously, and they will enter the Christmas break in a playoff spot after commencing the season with very little in the way of expectations, and they have done it amidst injuries and an incredibly challenging schedule in an Olympic year. The Black and Gold continued their winning ways with a 4-1 victory over the Utah Mammoth at TD Garden on Tuesday night that featured a two-goal performance for Morgan Geekie, who is now scoring on 28.2 percent of his shots on net.
It also ended in a spirited, physical way with Alex Steeves and Sean Durzi getting tossed for grappling at the end of the game as a brouhaha broke out in front of the benches, a polar opposite of what might have been expected as a sleepy Tuesday night effort against a Western Conference team in their first home game back after a long road trip.
Brawl breaks out at TD while "Feliz Navidad" plays the entire time 😂
— NESN (@NESN) December 17, 2025
Happy Holidays from your Boston Bruins 🎄 pic.twitter.com/KiVCoXQ3Fu
There have been no throwaway games like that this season and very few dips in play despite an overwhelming laundry list of injuries and adversity.
And like in many games, both wins and losses this season, the Bruins are getting offensive production up and down the lineup with both Casey Mittelstadt and Mikey Eyssimont extending the lead in the third period at a time when the Bruins are routinely pulling away from opponents.
MIKEY EYSSIMONT SHEESH. 4-1 pic.twitter.com/Ft5NCe1Ims
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) December 17, 2025
Part of it is personnel to be sure, part of it is a definite upgrade in coaching and part of it is most definitely better chemistry and leadership within the Bruins dressing room this season. Holdovers from last season are careful about differentiating between the two groups, but it seems pretty obvious that this season’s new combination of players is exactly what was needed for a previously sagging Original Six franchise.
“I am going to tread lightly on this because I don’t want to take a shot at last year, or anything, because there were a lot of guys that aren’t here anymore that I love deeply,” said Charlie McAvoy. “But the chemistry this year, it feels a little different and maybe we were able to water that seed a little bit more.
“Last year we were right on the road and didn’t get a chance to do any of the bonding stuff to get to know each other and before we knew it Monty was fired, and whatever…this year has been a little bit different. We were able to maybe learn a little bit from the lessons of last year and find a way to get this team as cohesive and as close as we can, and I think it has really helped us in this first half a lot.”
There were perhaps fewer better examples of that fine team chemistry than the way the Bruins handled business when David Pastrnak was out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury. The B’s went a solid 3-2-0 in the five games without their most dynamic game-breaker and similarly stayed afloat when McAvoy was out of the lineup for an extended period after taking a slap shot to the jaw.
Last season, things would have immediately funneled into a downward spiral of blowout defeats and finding new and interesting ways to lose games.
Instead, this edition of the Bruins' leadership group has held strong and rallied around injury replacement players like Jonathan Aspirot, A Steeves and Victor Soderstrom, and the Bruins have just kept on winning and playing good systems hockey. Couple the clear working chemistry with masterful special teams and elite level goaltending from Jeremy Swayman back to top form, and there is a very clear recipe for success that’s helped grow a strengthening family bond between the players, coaches and support staff.
Interestingly, Sturm partially credited the way he has helped cultivate the team culture from studying Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni in his interactions with Eagles players, something he started doing after Bruins President Cam Neely initially sent a behind-the-scenes Eagles video to both Sturm and Don Sweeney during the summer.
Simple things like buy-in, accountability, team-as-family and embracing roles became more than buzz words for the Bruins, and the focus on little things like that can usually lead to big accomplishments in terms of turning around a team culture.
“If you look at even some other sports, it’s everything,” Sturm said of Boston’s chemistry. “I follow a lot of other sports and championship teams. Even coaches — Philadelphia Eagles, that was my, I don’t know ‘project’, but I was reading and looking up a lot of those teams. I like their coach [Nick Sirianni], I like the chemistry they had, and I like their comments and everything. That’s so important. We’ve all got to connect. We all have got to be like a family, and the guys are showing that right now.
“It’s a combination of everyone. I can do a lot of things, but if you don’t get the buy-in from the guys. Us coaches, we’re in one room, and yes, we deliver messages and do this and do that, but it’s the guys, too,” Sturm said. “It’s our leaders. Starts with our leadership. They’re doing a tremendous job overall. Our young guys follow. We want to keep that tradition alive here. What was missing a little bit in the past. It’s been fun.”
Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni had fun with this play call 🦅 @Eagles
— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2025
Hard Knocks In Season with the NFC East on @HBOMax pic.twitter.com/SRfQfaWYDb
What’s interesting is that in years past it would have been a Bruins coach crediting Bill Belichick with that kind of influence, but times have changed even as Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots have their own special things going on in Foxboro this season.
Clearly, it has worked over the first three months of this hockey season in Boston as there’s a renewed interest in a Bruins team that’s playing with the hard-nosed, hard-working and rugged identity normally associated with the franchise, and they’re doing it while scoring goals and creating offense as well.
The home victory over the Mammoth was another overwhelming example of what this Bruins group has accomplished in a very short time after a sobering six-game losing streak at the start of the season, a losing stretch that had many people prematurely panicking for another roster fire sale. But there will be greater challenges ahead with the NHL trade deadline, the Olympic break in February and a heightened intensity level that will be there all teams vying for the playoffs once things get going in the final few months of the regular season.
That is where the true chemistry test of this Bruins team will either pass or fail where true playoff teams are made, but the promising early returns show a very different B’s identity emerging this season.
