By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan
The Boston Bruins sit at 8-7-0 through 15 games, and whether that record improves as the season goes on or not, the team hasn’t looked misdirected by its new head coach. In fact, from early indications, the players have appeared to be in lockstep with the performance and attention to detail demanded by head coach Marco Sturm, and for good reason.
Sturm has grabbed the team’s attention by a coaching style that crosses elements of former Bruins’ locker rooms. With the previous two head coaches of the Bruins before him, excluding Joe Sacco’s interim term, there were different styles between Jim Montgomery and Bruce Cassidy. The present coach has managed to bring the emotional outreach of Montgomery and the sturdiness of Cassidy to the table, and that’s not easy to do.
From the moment Sturm came into the Bruins’ facility, he preached a refreshing amount of honesty and self-analyzation of where the team is at, and has carried that into the locker room with his players. This has created a team community before, during and after game periods that is open to dialogue and criticism on in-game decisions, and has allowed the coach to bench young players like defenseman Mason Lohrei.
In the midst of a rebuild with increasing youth like this, the way Sturm is approaching things is the only way for the organizational plan to work out. This team could not afford rigidness without understanding or vice versa, and while it doesn’t guarantee any statistical output from these individual players, it goes a long way in setting the tone incoming players should expect. Also, for the leftover core of skilled veterans like forward David Pastrnak or defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who seemed mentally tired or confused from multiple coaching transitions, it has brought them a different energy.
That being said, the Bruins could go into a major slump and this might all read as malarky, but Sturm has given people in the organization a break from the ordinary. This is a team that doesn’t quite know how long the restart period will take roster-wise, so perhaps the team can strike gold with the unique style behind the bench.
Looking at the dynasty team of the National Hockey League, the Florida Panthers, head coach Paul Maurice also brought his own style. Sturm won’t be as brutal and sarcastic as he could be, and that’s how it should be, as it was crucial for the head coach to bring what he himself has to the table for the Bruins. So many people across Bruins Nation thought that Sturm was going to be the typical former-player coach who just tries to fit in with the players, and the progress so far has suggested anything but that.
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