( Photo Credit: Eric Bolte / Imagn Images )

By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan

When the Boston Bruins came into the 2025–26 season, don’t you think they knew they would have to steer clear of bad injury luck to stay in the race for a playoff spot? The ironic part, of course, is that this team has been in the hunt for a playoff spot at least so far, and they’ve done it despite playing a game of whack-a-mole with injuries to their forwards earlier on.

Now the Bruins face an even bigger test with injury luck, as defenseman Charlie McAvoy recovers from a puck to the face in Montreal and forward David Pastrnak deals with what appears to be a leg injury suffered against the New York Islanders three games ago. Although McAvoy has been on the practice ice in a non-contact jersey, the team will have to deal with the toll injuries to star players have taken as that list continues to grow.

System Overload

So far this season, the players who have missed time due to injury are McAvoy, Pastrnak, defeseman Hampus Lindholm, forward Viktor Arvidsson, forward Casey Mittelstadt, forward Elias Lindholm, defenseman Henri Jokiharju, defenseman Jordan Harris, defenseman Michael Callahan, and forward Matej Blumel. That’s basically a full National Hockey League roster of disruptions, and it would put any team behind the eight ball at some point during a season, let alone a retooling team under a new and learning regime.

For head coach Marco Sturm, you can try all you want to keep the remaining group engaged during these sporadic injuries, but especially in the case of McAvoy going down, eventually the youth of the team’s new look will catch up to them. There’s only so much substitute players can do before the team lags during stretches of games, as was evident in the recent matchups against the Detroit Red Wings.

That being said, the team is always just a strong performance from goaltender Jeremy Swayman away from continuing the solid stretch they’ve had to start the season. After all, the team, as those dreaded analytics suggest, has won thanks to their power play and the goaltending they’ve received.

It’s just going to be a tall task for the Bruins to avoid at least one significant road bump at some point, likely in the form of a losing streak. But until then, the players should overcompensate to maintain their newfound skating pressure on opposing defensemen and do their best to finish off any good scoring chances.