Bruins are a Tough Out Thanks to New Identity — The Fourth Period

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.