By: Tom Calautti | Follow me on Twitter/X @TCalauttis
The Boston Bruins are off to an excellent start. Through 13 games, the Black and Gold are 9-3-1, tied for third in the league in points, and sit atop the vaunted Atlantic Division three points clear of the second-place Montreal Canadiens.
Despite the early-season success, head coach Marco Sturm’s squad still has areas to clean up before the meat of their schedule. After all, even though the 2025-26 Bruins reached the 100-point plateau and made the playoffs, management felt they had some clear, obvious deficiencies to address.
That said, I did some research and looked at trends that cost the Bruins precious points down the stretch last season. Here are my three biggest areas of concern the B’s can improve to maximize point production this season.
Closing out Games
From a 10,000-foot view, you can’t argue with the 2025-26 Boston Bruins’ ability to close out games. They were 33-2-4 when leading after two periods, a dominant record that shows a team that can batten down the hatches and hold a lead when the pressure ratchets up. But when you look at those contests more closely, those numbers become a bit worrisome.
If you include the 2025-26 first-round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabers and the first 13 matches of this season, Boston has had 13 games where it led after two periods or led at some point in the final frame and was dragged to overtime. In those games, the Bruins surrendered 22 third-period goals combined and put themselves in danger of losing points.
It’s not just the number of goals they surrendered in these games that’s troubling; it’s how they played that raises eyebrows. Over the 12 games where Boston either lost or went to OT, the Bruins were outshot 181-136, outchanced 83-48, and had only 22 high-danger chances to opponents’ 37.
These numbers indicate a trend in Boston’s late-game play that has cost them points in the past: parking the bus too early and playing too passively in crunch time. We’ve all seen it before: Sturm’s team completely abandons high-pressure forechecking and stops making purposeful plays out of its own zone, opting instead for high-lob chip outs and zone clearances that don’t really lead to offense.
This occurrence became apparent in the team’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on October 20th. The Bruins played a solid game against a quality opponent, took a lead heading into the third, and then turned off their offense and forechecking too soon; the Stars tied it in regulation and won in overtime.
What makes last season’s numbers so interesting is that in the 13 games I referenced, Boston went 7-2-5. So while they won most of those games in overtime, it’s clear they missed out on some valuable, easily available points.
So far, the Bruins have been solid when leading after two periods, posting a 4-0-1 record. If they can clean up their late-game execution and keep this play going, it should help them capitalize on some valuable points going forward.
Limit the PP Goals
There’s no two ways about it: the Boston Bruins were a bad penalty killing team last season. Over their 82-game slate, the B’s allowed 64 power-play goals, good enough for second in the league, and posted the league’s 24th-ranked penalty kill (77 percent).
Any analyst can tell you that winning the special teams battle usually leads to positive results, but the sheer volume of man-advantage goals they allowed last season was unacceptable. It wasn’t just their lack of discipline that caused problems (978, second in the league to Tampa Bay); it was their inability to limit the damage when they were on the kill.
During the 2025-26 season, there were 19 games where the B’s allowed two or more goals of the power-play and shorthanded variety. In those contests, the team lost 32 goals combined and went an abysmal 5-12-2.
What’s most frustrating about this pattern is that it more often than not happened in games against quality competition, meaning the Bruins effectively took themselves out of competitive games through either their lack of discipline or inefficient kill. 11 of those contests ended up being either one- or two-goal affairs, which highlights the fact that if Boston had its act together, they could’ve potentially parked more points.
At this point in the season, the B’s haven’t been able to buck last year’s trend. They’ve allowed multiple special teams goals in three of their 13 games, putting them on pace for 20 such contests over the season.
The penalty kill was strong in last night’s loss to Carolina and is significantly more effective than last year’s group (currently ranked 16th in the league at 80.4 percent). However, they still have to stop the hemorrhaging when it happens. If the Bruins can stay disciplined (I know, tall task) and just get a bit more out of their kill, they should be in a good spot this season.
Beat up on Bad Teams
One way Atlantic Division teams can park easy points and get themselves ahead of the proverbial eight ball is to beat up on the teams they’re clearly better than. It doesn’t matter if it’s the second night of a back-to-back, third game in four nights, or first game after a break; good hockey teams know how to take advantage of an inferior squad.
Last season, the Bruins were solid against the league’s dregs, but they still left points on the board. In the 23 games the team played against the bottom 10 teams in the NHL, Sturm’s squad went 12-8-3. Put another way, they earned 27 of 46 possible points against the 10 teams with the highest odds of earning the number one overall pick.
So far this season, Sturm’s squad has handled business against the lesser-quality opponents they’ve faced. They’re 6-0 against teams currently outside the playoff structure and have outscored them 35-14.
Given how tight the Atlantic Division already is, and how competitive in-division games will be, the Bruins need to bank points where they can. Getting off to a good start against lower-echelon teams helps, but if Boston wants to shore itself up before the schedule gets tougher, it’ll need to keep winning these ‘easier’ games to get ahead of the curve.
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