December 2, 2025 | 11:30am ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

BRUINS ARE A TOUGH OUT THANKS TO NEW IDENTITY

Bruins President Cam Neely

BOSTON, MA — Before this season began, most pundits and fans expected a repeat of the 2024-25 season. A season that saw Boston miss the Stanley Cup playoffs by finishing last in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins entered this season in a retooling mode with a new coach, a new core of leaders, young players, and a short list of journeymen. Bruins’ management disagreed with the predictions of doom, leading team president Cam Neely to say that he thought his club would be “a very tough out this year.” While most people dismissed that statement, it is looking like Neely knew what he was talking about all along.

The start of the season was one of streaks. Beginning with a three-game win streak, followed by a six-game losing streak, before the Bruins reeled off seven consecutive wins as October turned into November.

Since that roller coaster ride, the waters in Boston have smoothed out a bit.

The calendar has turned to December, and the Bruins are sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division with a 15-12-0 (30 points) record. If you are one of the many who believe that a team in a playoff position on American Thanksgiving will qualify for the postseason, then you are feeling pretty good about this Black and Gold club. Statistically, 70% of those teams have seen action in the postseason.

What does it say about the players who set out to have this Bruins team exceed expectations?

Coach Marco Sturm believes it has been effort and wanting to establish their own personality.

“We wanted to build our identity, probably back to where it was, I don’t know when, but I think (almost) 30 games now, I think we can see it,” Sturm said. “Guys are buying in. Guys are giving me, every night, something, even if it doesn’t look like (it), but I know they’re giving everything every night, and they play the right way. Slowly, they figured out how to play to win hockey games. Again, it’s only 30 games; we’re happy about it. Can we do it again to keep that pace up for the next 30 games, to keep that identity up, keep that consistency up? That’s going to be the next challenge.”

It was not that long ago when Boston’s identity was playing sound defensive hockey, which would create good offensive chances. The Bruins had the players who could score goals in bunches. This new group knows it needs to outwork the opponent every night.

This is also a team that plays a physical brand of hockey that reminds those of us of a certain generation of the Bruins clubs from the late 1970s and early 1980s, often referred to as The Lunch Pail A.C. Those teams not only worked harder than their opponents, they intimidated them with well-timed bone-rattling body checks and the occasional, okay maybe more like routine, fisticuffs (a.k.a. fights). Fast forward some 45 years, and you have a team that plays a similar style.

After defeating the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 Saturday in a shootout in Boston, Bruins forward Connor Geekie (20 goals this season) pointed out that his teammates knew there was the possibility of playing multiple one-goal games this year. They also knew the type of effort it would take to win one-goal games and were prepared to play that way this year.

“There was a knock on us, I think, ever since the end of last year when we shipped a lot of guys out (at the NHL trade deadline),” Geekie said. “I thought we had a great summer, brought a lot of guys in, and I think in this room, we knew the kind of group we had. Everybody outside of here didn’t have us pegged (to be a playoff team), but we knew this was the kind of games that we were going to win, 1-0, 2-1. It’s kind of how we’re built and the mentality we have as a team. Just try to buy into that, and obviously, there was a little bit of a learning curve to start the year, but these kinds of wins matter a lot at the end of the year.”

Now that the Bruins are comfortable with Sturm’s systems, his squad is seeing and believing that they can be a tough out.

Goaltender Jeremy Swayman (11-6-0, 2.62 goals against average, .915 save percentage), who is in his sixth season with Boston, has the best seat in the house on a nightly basis and likes what he has seen from this year’s edition of the Bruins.

“It’s a system that works,” said Swayman. “If guys are in the right spot, it’s going to work, and with reps, with games, shift after shift, you’re going to get more and more chemistry within each other. We’re trending in the right direction.

“We’re taking a one game at a time mentality. We have high expectations for ourselves, and that’s something we can really grow on.”

That mentality and a new identity will ensure Boston is a tough out throughout the remainder of the 2025-26 season.