Boston Bruins
With Thursday’s loss to a rebuilding Nashville team, Boston is just 11-14-4 on the road this season.
COMMENTARY
Don Sweeney made his intentions clear on Monday about his plans for an overachieving Bruins roster.
“We’d like to give them a bump, because they’ve earned that,” Sweeney said of his plans for the NHL trade deadline on Friday. “But it’s an eye towards this year, but moving forward as well.”
The 2025-26 Bruins have exceeded plenty of expectations during Marco Sturm’s first year as an NHL head coach — cultivating a hard-nosed, punishing identity that has been readily embraced by a fanbase looking to flush away the misery of last season’s implosion.
Entering Friday, the Bruins still sit in a very precarious spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Boston, 34-22-5, remains as the second (and final) Wild Card team in the conference, with a red-hot Columbus team just one point behind them in the standings.
The Bruins, all things considered, appear to be ahead of schedule in their retooling efforts.
But that doesn’t mean that this Bruins team has earned the right to be a buyer — not at this stage of its roster overhaul.
And especially not after Thursday’s disastrous performance in Nashville.
Sweeney might be right that this team — through 61 games — has put the onus on him to explore possible avenues to upgrade this depth chart before an unexpected playoff run.
But they haven’t done all that much to validate Sweeney’s seal of approval since returning from the Olympic break.
In its four games since the NHL resumed play, Boston has gone 2-2, dropping a pair of road bouts to squads outside of the playoff picture in Philadelphia and Nashville.
Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Preds very well could have shaken whatever resolve Boston’s top brass had in investing in this group.
A victory over Nashville wasn’t going to be a statement win, nor would it have shifted any sort of sentiment about Boston’s burgeoning status as the scrappy club few teams would want to face in the first round of the playoffs.
Rather, it was two points that good teams easily bank — especially against a Nashville club in the midst of its own roster teardown.
In what amounts to a frantic sprint to the finish line, Thursday’s game on Broadway should have been a gimme for Sturm’s team.
Not only had Nashville (28-26-8) dropped five out of its last six games entering Thursday, but it had already sold off several pieces from its roster — shipping out Michael McCarron, Cole Smith, Nick Blankenburg, and Michael Bunting over the last three days.
On top of that, star center Ryan O’Reilly was ruled out of Thursday’s game due to an upper-body injury.
Handed two points on a silver platter, the Bruins instead faceplanted at Bridgestone Arena.
Boston’s puck management and D-zone coverage were laughably lax all night. Joonas Korpisalo needed a timely save or two, while go-to options like David Pastrnak had nights to forget.
By the time Charlie McAvoy and Viktor Arvidsson lit the lamp in the third period, it was too little , too late.
Instead of entering Friday’s deadline with some momentum, the Bruins are now back in Boston — their path forward murkier than ever.
Yes, the Bruins are still in the playoff picture as of Friday.
But they’re now 11-14-4 on the road this season — an ominous note for a team that will play 12 of its final 21 games away from the friendly confines of TD Garden this season.
Their blue-line depth is still being tested, especially on the right side. Boston’s penalty kill is 24th in the league.
The Bruins already don’t have an appetite for rentals. If the right deal comes along for a young franchise fixture up front or on the blue line, Boston should be aggressive and opportunistic, given their abundance of trade chips.
But giving up valuable picks, prospects, and other assets for older players like Justin Faulk, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Conor Garland shouldn’t be the play — not to move the needle for this Bruins roster.
Boston could opt to stand pat. Rolling with the same roster that currently sits in a playoff spot — while holding onto all its first-rounders and prospects — still has the Bruins in a strong position moving forward.
But Sweeney could also further pile onto his draft stockpile if he makes the bold decision to move off parts from this roster.
Even a “soft” sell in a market where players like Nicolas Roy (1st-rounder), McCarron (2nd-rounder), and Connor Murphy (2nd-rounder) are netting valuable picks could lead to sizable returns for the Bruins — especially for pending UFAs like Andrew Peeke and Arvidsson.
On Monday, Sweeney pushed back against talk of dealing key players on this roster — even those who could be flipped for future picks on Friday.
“I’m not just in a hurry to usher people out the door that have helped us get to the point that we are right here,” Sweeney said. “If something presents and maybe there’s a lateral situation that improves our depth, then I have to do my job and explore it. But that’s not necessarily what our intentions are. But it only takes one phone call to change that mindset of mine.”
As the clock continues to tick down to 3 p.m., time will tell if one phone call — or one miserable loss in Nashville — might shift Sweeney’s approach on Friday.
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