( Photo Credit: Matt Stone / Boston Herald )

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

The 2026 Winter Olympics was a major success for the Boston Bruins, with Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman winning gold, while others appreciated the opportunity to represent their countries. However, sitting here now as a viewer of the team’s efforts after the break, you can clearly see a drop-off in the Bruins’ individual and collective consistency.

It’s been exemplified by players like Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie skating into unfortunate halts in production, alongside a recent game of musical chairs with head coach Marco Sturm and the forward lines. The team needs anyone and everyone to make an impact if they wish to be among the playoff participators, and the disruption in play seemed to come at the worst time.

Since the Olympic Break, the #NHLBruins power play has scored on 4 of 28 chances. They have also allowed two shorthanded goals.

-via reporter @jackstudley13 on X

With a developing team having scattered skill pieces like the Bruins, special teams stats will almost reveal the code red, perhaps before it even happens. There’s also no more attention paid to cohesion than with the power play and penalty kill, and currently, the units are simply not putting things together.

This has put greater pressure on the lines at 5-on-5 to deliver, and this has always been a work in progress since the season started. The team was nearing a solid checkpoint in their progression after the two Florida games before the break, but it’s all regressed and leaned back onto the special teams.

It all surely feels somewhat odd to many because, at the same time, the Bruins built up a great deal of success at home since the Olympic break. The team had a 13-game win streak at TD Garden until last night’s loss to the San Jose Sharks.

Ultimately, though, the team’s had breakdowns in play regardless of win or loss post-break, and the intangibles have always told more of the story than the game’s score when it comes to the rhythm of the Bruins’ play. They have the minuscule one-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Wild Card standings to remind them of that.