Thursday night’s, 4-1, loss by the Boston Bruins against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center was a lot worse than Tuesday night’s, 2-1, loss in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Playing well against the good teams (Carolina), even if you ultimately lose (and are outshot) is a good sign of growth in a youth movement.
Playing like whatever that was in St. Louis, however, is not.
Shots on goal and giveaways were both pretty even through 40 minutes, until Boston had a, 14-2, advantage in shots in the third period alone.
But by then, one of St. Louis’ two shots on net in the final frame hit the back of the twine for a Blues power-play goal– giving them a three-goal lead and their fourth unanswered goal of the night after Boston opened the scoring back in the first period.
Something about Boston’s play looked worse all night.
They weren’t forcing the play. They weren’t pressuring St. Louis’ offense in the defensive zone when they maybe should have (see, Robert Thomas’ goal).
They were just sloppy.
Is it concerning if a team plays sloppy this early into the season? Sure. Could it just be that they’re figuring out the rhythm of an 84-game season, so they’re going to have a night like this– possibly a stretch? Also yeah.
Again, the Bruins are not Stanley Cup contenders this season and we’re not even technically sure if they’ll be a playoff team, despite entering Thursday first in the Atlantic Division.
The B’s are now 9-4-1 overall with 19 points– one point ahead of the 8-3-2 Montréal Canadiens.
Remember, the Detroit Red Wings were “a lock” for the 2026 postseason by about December last year. And then what happened?
If anything, Thursday night’s game in St. Louis was all the more reason why the Bruins shouldn’t be aggressive to add a piece that will barely move the needle but give the appearance of a “win now” team.
This is a two-to-three year process and (depending on if you started counting in 2024-25 or 2025-26) they’re still not out of the overhaul yet.
Last season’s playoff appearance for the B’s could’ve been a fluke, but it raises the expectations for consistent improvement overall.
As for the one lineup change…
No, Connor Clifton replacing Frédéric Brunet for a game (or two, even, if Marco Sturm leaves Clifton in for Saturday’s home matinée against the Chicago Blackhawks) is not a punishment.
Unlike Nikita Zadorov‘s discipline struggles from time-to-time in his Boston tenure (see, “finding the right time for heavy hockey” and “how to avoid crossing the line” for more), Brunet is a young, first-year full-time NHL defender.
Brunet is going to have a bad game every now and then.
Honestly, it’s not a bad idea for young defenders in the NHL to get a look at the game from the press box once in a while.
Call it an “observation game” if you will, since learning by observing is one of the many ways people learn.
The further away from the ice that you sit, the more you can see how plays develop and start to understand– from observation alone– the differences between NHL and AHL action, plus where defensive positioning should be applied and how things go wrong when they go wrong.
It’s a good mental reset and as long as you haven’t completely lost your coach’s confidence, you’ll be back in the next game or two, ready to contribute.
I’d be more concerned if someone like Will Borgen regressed to the point of needing an “observation game”, since he’s had more than enough NHL experience by now– he should know the game.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brunet plays around 69 games (barring injury) this season given the number of games he sat out as a healthy scratch to start the year and (roughly) how many more potential “observation games” he might experience.
But if you want more recent young Bruins defender examples:
Johnny Boychuk played in 51 games in 2009-10, then 69 games in the 2010-11 season with Boston after working his way up from Providence.
He was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2nd round (61st overall) in 2002. He made his NHL debut with the Avs in the 2007-08 season two weeks shy of turning 24.
Boychuk was 27 when he won the Cup in 2011. Brunet is only 23.
Dougie Hamilton was the 9th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft and spent one more year in junior hockey with the Niagara IceDogs (OHL) for 2011-12, before participating in 42 out of the lockout shortened 48-game 2012-13 season for Boston.
Kevan Miller only played in 47 games in his first full season in 2013-14 (he spent 19 games in Providence that year as well and, no, I didn’t look up if he missed any time due to injury, but probably).
Torey Krug was slowly implemented prior to his first full NHL season with a pair of games in Boston in 2011-12, one game during the 2012-13 season (before fully emerging as the offensive defender that he was in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs) and 79 games in 2013-14.
After finishing his time at Ohio State, Mason Lohrei played five games with Providence in 2022-23, and 21 games with Providence the following year while making an impression in 41 games with Boston in 2023-24.
Lohrei was a full-time NHL player– playing in 77 games– in 2024-25, and through his ups and downs last season still managed 73 games.
Miller (Vermont), Krug (Michigan State) and Lohrei played college hockey before spending time in Providence while rising to the NHL ranks. Lohrei, however, was the only one of the aforementioned trio to be drafted– having been selected in the 2nd round (58th overall) by Boston in 2020.
Now for some positives(?):
Morgan Geekie has one goal this season (Oct. 8th in a, 6-1, win against the Utah Mammoth). He’s off to a slow start, but we’ve seen this before. Some players are just like that– I call them “second-half of the season players.”
David Krejčí got better as the season went on like that.
I’m not saying Geekie is like Krejčí, but rather that anytime Geekie would like to score again would be more than welcome– even if it’s not nearly at the rate he’ll eventually start scoring by the midpoint of the season.
Now, that’s not to say I’m in agreement with Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic‘s latest takeaways about the Bruins as a whole. Sure, the underlying analytics look good…. For now.
There’s some cracks that will need addressing, but they’re overarching goals to be reached in one or two years from now, really.
Speaking of goals, however, James Hagens scored in Thursday night’s action. It may have been the only goal that Boston scored, but Hagens is now on pace for 30 this season.
That’s probably a bit much for the first-year NHL forward, but never say never.
If Hagens can get to the 15-20 range, that’s still a solid first season.
In the meantime, something has got to be done about the special teams– specifically the penalty kill. It might be a problem.
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