Boston Bruins
“The reality — I think we saw last year — is what happens when you don’t perform. And that’s the way things seem to be going.”
TD Garden rose as one as soon as Morgan Geekie’s wrist shot sailed into twine.
In the span of just 25 seconds, the Bruins erased what was a two-goal lead for the Anaheim Ducks in the third period — with tallies from Geekie and David Pastrnak knotting up a seesaw contest at 5-5 with just 5:03 left in regulation.
As the cheers rained down from the upper levels of Boston’s barn, the Bruins once again refused to roll over amid an uneven (and often frustrating) start to the season.
It took all of 30 seconds for that cacophony of jubilation to shift into stunned silence.
In what has become a regular trend through just nine games this season, Boston let go of the rope defensively after lighting the lamp.
As both Charlie McAvoy and Mason Lohrei set their sights on Nikita Nesterenko, Troy Terry was left unchecked at Joonas Korpisalo’s doorstep.
The result? A back-breaking sixth goal for Anaheim — and an eventual sixth straight loss for the Bruins.
“This is devastating — the way we’re losing these games,” McAvoy said. “It’s just, it’s killing us. We’re fighting so hard and we just can’t stop beating ourselves. So it’s, yeah, it’s pretty defeating right now.”
“I’m embarrassed,” goalie Joonas Korpisalo added. “We should all be.”
Silver linings were expected to be drawn on heavily this season for a flawed Bruins team that — on paper — was going to be hard-pressed to generate offense.
In the weeks leading up to the start of the 2025-26 campaign, new head coach Marco Sturm mapped out the vision of a team that — even with its limited arsenal of weapons — would be a hard out due to a stingy defensive structure that would keep games close.
Instead, the opposite has happened for a Bruins team short on answers less than 10 games into the season.
“We’re scoring five [goals]. There should be an automatic win all the time,” Nikita Zadorov said. “That’s not our identity. So we’ve got to work on it. We’ve got to find a way to shut it down before it gets too late.”
A Bruins forward corps currently rolling out fourth-line scrappers like Jeffrey Viel in a middle-six spot and underwhelming offseason pickups like Viktor Arvidsson on the second line is still averaging 3.22 goals per game — good for 11th in the league.
A peek under the hood shows that the Bruins are still struggling when it comes to generating quality chances at 5-on-5 offense, with only five teams producing fewer high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 action than Boston’s 9.9 (per Natural Stat Trick).
Still, the Bruins are landing enough punches at 5-on-5 action and on the power play (2-for-2 on Thursday) to at least remain competitive this season.
But in a development that has even left Sturm shell-shocked, a porous defense from last season has sprung even more leaks so far this fall — oftentimes at the worst possible moment.
“I knew there was work to do. I thought it would be more work offensively than defensively. That’s where I’m really surprised,” Sturm said. “Yeah, we tweaked a few things system-wise. But still, it should be in our DNA. That’s the Boston Bruins’ DNA — playing solid, good defense.
“And then we go from there. And now it almost goes — we are the opposite, right? We’re looking for a lot of goals, and forget about our own end. So that part is tough to understand a little bit. Where is that coming from, right?”
The Bruins’ defensive struggles have generated a season’s worth of devestating setbacks in a little over two-weeks time.
The timing of Boston’s defensive breakdowns has sapped whatever sort of momentum Sturm’s team has been able to seize as they continue to claw back from deficits.
Through nine games, the Bruins have coughed up a goal seven times within three minutes of scoring one of their own.
It happened during Tuesday’s crushing loss to Florida, with Carter Verhaeghe scoring with just 25.7 seconds left in regulation — and 1:05 after Geekie converted on an equalizer.
And it struck the Bruins twice on Thursday, culminating in Terry’s game-winning strike in the closing minutes of the third period.
“I mean, it happens every game, it seems,” Geekie said of Boston’s track record of giving up goals after scoring. “Our coaches prepare us with everything we need for the game. And I mean, it’s just embarrassing — to the fans, to everybody. … Growing up — I mean, everybody watched the Bruins, and everybody hated to play against the Bruins because of how they played.
“And that’s something that I think our identity needs to be. And I think in games like today … we just get away from that, and we have the team to be able to play like we should, with the culture and the integrity of being a Bruin. It’s just we start to think that we’re something else, I think. And when we do that, we get away from what we’re really good at, and that’s just playing good, hard hockey.”
The Bruins still have 73 games left on their regular-season docket.
But Geekie is not focusing on silver linings. Not when the same errors that have plagued this team for two weeks have shown no signs of sorting themselves out.
“It’s tough to be glass half-full, to be honest with you,” Geekie said. “I think everybody’s sick of it in here: the new guys, the guys that were here last year that went through everything and saw everybody get shipped out at the deadline.
“You’re right, there is a lot of season left. But I mean, … you can’t ruin your season at the start. But it can get out of hand pretty quick. And I think that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t turn things around. It’s a great group of guys in here. And the reality — I think we saw last year — is what happens when you don’t perform. And that’s the way things seem to be going.”
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