The Boston Bruins have kept their competitive window open for nearly two decades. With a playoff miss imminent, their path forward is murky at best.
Just two years after setting an all-time record for points in a single NHL season, the Boston Bruins are at a crossroads.
On Saturday, they dropped their eighth-straight game as they finished out a five-game road trip with a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. With just one overtime loss among the bunch, it’s the third time this season that they’ve gone winless for five or more games in a row.
With 10 games remaining, the Bruins have fallen to 30-35-9 for 69 points in 74 games. Eight points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference on Sunday, it’s all-but guaranteed that their streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances, which is tied for the active NHL lead, is about to come to an end.
In the past, Boston has been able to shake off adversity and remain successful. But this year has been different.No More Goalie Hugs
Maybe the tide changed when Linus Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators on June 24, 2024?
That put an end to the goalie hugs that Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman had shared after wins for three seasons.
Salary-cap constraints suggested that the Bruins wouldn’t be able to keep both members of their platoon, who had shared the workload and functioned as a true tandem. But moving Ullmark so early in the offseason, when he had one year remaining on his contract, handed bargaining leverage to Swayman.
The restricted free agent went on to exert every ounce of his power, holding out through training camp before signing an eight-year deal with a cap hit of $8.25 million on Oct. 6, two days before the regular season began.
Whether it was the drama of the negotiations or missing out on training camp and pre-season, Swayman stumbled out to a 3-4-1 record and .884 record in October, and hasn’t recovered. Through 52 starts, he’s now at 20-26-6 with an .893 save percentage and minus-7.6 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. Last season, he finished out the year at a sparkling plus-18.4 GSAE, fourth-best in the league.Montgomery Fired
The slow start also seemed to spark early tension between the Bruins’ front office and their head coach.
