A normal part of introducing youth to an NHL lineup is some wince-inducing growing pains, and the Bruins had an industrial-sized one of those at home on Monday night.
A few early, mind-numbing breakdowns and an almost complete lack of offense led to a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden where Tim Stutzle sliced and diced the B’s for two early goals in defeat. Not surprisingly, the Bruins took full accountability for the concerning no-show against a division rival after the disengaged hockey show came to a merciful conclusion.
“We didn’t come ready to play,” admitted a straightforward Nikita Zadorov after it was over. “You could see it from the first minute of the game. I don’t know why. We just gotta get back to our identity. Our identity is playing good, structured, defensive hockey.
“We’re not an offensive team. We’re not a skill team. We’ve been talking about this for two years, you know? We’re a simple team. We’ve got to get pucks deep, get on the forecheck, wear the teams down and then we’ll get our opportunities like we did against the [Rangers]. We waited…what…like 56 minutes for our first goal. That’s our identity. That’s our hockey. That’s the Bruins hockey. It’s okay. It’s early in the year and we’ve got some new faces, different linemate…I think we’ll be fine. We still have [it] inside this room.”
It was clearly Boston’s worst loss of the early season in four tries, and it also coincided with Boston inserting 22-year-old Matt Poitras and 23-year-old Frederic Brunet into the gameday lineup for the first time. The lineup changes underscore the patience that the Bruins will need to show with this season’s team where they’re featuring a “kid line” and have a handful of very young, mostly inexperienced players paired with an established veteran core that should be much better than they were in this game.
Mason Lohrei was removed from the top power play unit after a disastrous early hiccup – where he was handcuffed by a David Pastrnak turnover high in the offensive zone -- that led to a shorthanded score, and James Hagens failed to get a puck deep on a backhanded zone entry – and then compounded the problem by going for a change right after the weak turnover – in a backbreaking sequence that led to Ottawa’s third score in the second period.
Ottawa goal! Scored by Drake Batherson with 18:54 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Tim Stützle. BOS: 0 | OTT: 3 #OTTvsBOS #NHLBruins #GoSensGo https://t.co/k3zu5Zb6Eo
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 6, 2026
The failures were across the board, but afterward Hagens rightly took some accountability for his early miscues, even after a great individual play by the teenager led to Boston’s only goal in the third period.
Hagens banks it home. https://t.co/MfeqhtJ6uL
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 6, 2026
“I was a big reason for a couple of those goals going in,” said Hagens. “I have to be a lot better. That was unacceptable on my end. It’s tough. You want to be able to play really well in your end and get that win.”
One thing that’s not even up for discussion is Marco Sturm’s readiness to manage introducing youthful players into the Boston lineup, as he has exactly the right temperament and feel for the push and pull of getting the most out of inexperienced guys in an NHL lineup. The Bruins bench boss was appropriately protective of Hagens after the game and rightly pointed toward a slew of other key veteran Bruins players (David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, JJ Peterka, Elias Lindholm) who picked a tough night to all have their worst efforts of the season.
“Yes, [Hagens] probably had a tough night like anyone else,” said Sturm. “But I won’t blame him. He’s a kid who needs to learn. Our top guys, games like this, they have to be in charge. I can’t ask for James Hagens to take charge.
“Yes, he needs to be better. But overall as a group, we’ve just got to help those kids out. The kids have to play better as well. I won’t blame my young guys for that. They’re kids. They need to learn the hard way sometimes. But they need help. That’s all of us.”
One of the big challenges was evaluating youngsters like Poitras and Brunet after the flaming dumpster fire on the ice. Poitras actually finished a plus-1 in the loss and Hagens had been dropped to a fourth line spot with the playmaking Poitras and Tanner Jeannot by the end of the proceedings.
Brunet finished with three giveaways and three blocked shots in 18:43 of ice time, but it might be hard to stick with the puck-moving, offensive option on the back end when they pretty clearly missed Jonathan Aspirot’s steady defensive presence amidst the odd-man rush onslaught from Ottawa.
“Everyone was very flat,” said Sturm, when asked to evaluate Poitras and Brunet following the game. “So it’s tough to say. I didn’t mind Brunet. He had some good moments. He’s another kid who needs to learn. He definitely showed some good signs.”
The bigger issue is tone-setters like new Bruins captain David Pastrnak turning pucks over on the power play and putting teammates in tough spots and then compounding the issue by failing to urgently back check after coughing up the puck. The lack of emotional engagement and readiness to play was