The 2025-26 Boston Bruins have some 'splaing to do.
They haven't won a Stanley Cup since 2010 in a city that pretty much expects championships or at least contenders for championships. They haven't even been in the finals since 2019. In the last four seasons, they only made it past the first round of playoffs once, and last season didn't even qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2016.
The frustration was particularly evident after the 2022–23 season, when the Bruins broke all sorts of NHL records, led the Atlantic Division the entire season, and finished the season with 65 wins and 135 points. But in the first round of the playoffs, they took a 3-1 series lead only to get eliminated by the Florida Panthers in seven. The Panthers knocked the Bruins from the playoffs in the 2023-2024 season as well, and remain both their divisional archrivals and their own personal kryptonite team.
The front office fired head coach Jim Montgomery after a slow start last season, naming Joe Sacco as interim coach, and then before this season began, replaced Sacco with Marco Sturm, now the 30th head coach in Bruins' history. Most notably, the Bruins traded team captain Brad Marchand to the hated Panthers for a first-round draft pick, and the only BU alumnus left on the team is former Terrier Charlie McAvoy.
With no major trades or off-season acquisitions. the Bruins are going to need to rely of the formidable offense of David Pastrnak, who will be assisted by veterans Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie, and Pavel Zacha. Jeremy Swayman will apparently be their go-to goaltender this season.
So how's that going to work out? For consultation, I turned to the I Ching, of course, and wound up casting the 59th hexagram, Huan (Dissolution), which sounds ominous. Wind above, water below. There were no moving lines, but the hexagram's reading, "Dispel the inflexible demands and fears of the mind so that you may reunite in the heart," seems directed more toward us fans than the team itself.
"If you have begrudged, forgive," the oracle advises. "If you have torn down, repair. If you have injured, heal. If you have judged, pardon. If you have grasped, let go." In other words, forget the past disappointments, and enter this season with an open mind.
Last night, the Bruins played their first game of this new season, the dawn of the Marco Sturm era. They won, beating the Washington Capitals, 3-1, on the road. Pastrnak scored the first goal of the game in the second period, Lindholm scored a power-play goal in the third, and Geekie got an open-net goal in the closing minute. Since Pasta assisted on the latter two goals, he finished the game with three points, the most on the team. Swayman made 35 saves on 36 shots (.972).
The Bruins start the season 1-0, and Pastrnak seems ready to shoulder the offensive duties. Can't ask for more than that after one game. Tonight, they return home to play the Chicago Blackhawks (0-1). Let's not begrudge the Bruins for their past disappointments, and instead cheer them on without judgement. After all, they don't have to play the Panthers until October 21.
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