Many, many things that were predicted for the Boston Bruins this season did not end up coming true.
They will not end up in the NHL Draft lottery and they most definitely did not have a fire sale of veteran players for the second straight season at the NHL trade deadline. But the B’s were predicted to be a hockey team that was going to struggle to score goals and generate offense based on their patchwork lineup, and some of that has developed into a real-life hockey situation for the Black and Gold.
It certainly was the case in their two losses in Florida this week as they were able to only scrape for a single goal in each of the games against Florida and Tampa Bay – including a 3-1 loss to the Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday night – and has been fairly consistent in scoring a grand total of 10 goals in their six regulation losses since coming back from the Olympic break.
A big part of the slowdown against the Lightning on Saturday was a failure of the B’s power play to come through as they went 0-for-4 while vastly outnumbering the Bolts in special teams’ chances, and that has also very much become a post-Olympics phenomenon for a team that has dropped to the ninth in the NHL this season after being top-5 for the entire first half of the year.
“It’s very unfortunate because guys overall played a very solid game,” said Marco Sturm to NESN postgame, as he very clearly wants his team to continue tightening things up defensively ahead of the postseason. “We had a few chances [that we didn’t cash in on] even in the first period, but I thought our power play needed to step up. It didn’t give us a whole lot of Grade-A chances. But we were still good enough. It’s just that those little details really matter and those little details have been hurting us for two games now.”
Amazingly for these Bruins, the Blue Jackets, Senators, Red Wings and Islanders all lost on Saturday as well, so the B’s continue to hold a six-point cushion on their wild card playoff bid with just five games remaining in the regular season.
Even in a loss, their playoff chances increased to 96.9 percent based on everybody else’s futility as six teams -- seven, if you consider the Washington Capitals still in it as well -- essentially battle for three playoff spots, two wild card spots and the third playoff spot in the Metro Division.
Playoff chances after Saturday night’s Eastern games https://t.co/RbnckCLHNP pic.twitter.com/TPPaXkI8xK
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) April 5, 2026
Boston’s situation allowed them to take a measured approach after losing two straight games in regulation, but it makes a Sunday afternoon road matinee against the Philadelphia Flyers all the more important.
“I really liked our game. I thought we had a lot of positives for our group,” said Jeremy Swayman, who was beaten for a Darren Raddysh goal in the third period that could definitely be termed a ‘soft goal’ by his standards given the time and place it was surrendered. “Sometimes you don’t get the result, but this team shouldn’t be hanging their heads after [this game]. A lot of good things came away from it.”
Just like we all predicted before the season, DARREN RADDYSH HAS SET THE LIGHTNING'S SINGLE SEASON DEFENSEMAN GOAL RECORD AT 21!!!!! 🚨👏 pic.twitter.com/bSmDboDVzd
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 4, 2026
But things need to improve offensively for the Bruins down in this final handful of games. Clearly, the power play needs to react to teams that very clearly used the Olympic break to break down Boston’s man advantage and find ways to close it down, and it may be time to make some changes with the forward lines as well.
The Bruins need to find a way to re-ignite a struggling Morgan Geekie, who has gone 16 games without a goal dating back to March 5 and is in the worst goal-scoring slump of the season. Some of it is perhaps regression to the mean, as he enjoyed a crazy 25-plus percent shooting percentage in the first half of the season, but there’s also no question he is a bit of a streaky scorer in nature.
His latest slump coincided with Sturm separating him and David Pastrnak on a regular basis and instead moving Geekie and Elias Lindholm to third-line duties with a rotating left wing of Mikey Eyssimont, Alex Steeves, and Lukas Reichel. Perhaps now is the time to slot Geekie back in with Pastrnak on a regular basis and find a way to unlock the games of both players ahead of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“It’s just tough,” admitted Geekie following the loss to the Panthers earlier this week. “It’s been a tough stretch and it’s one of those things where you just try to man up and gut through it.”
The entire Bruins team is enduring a stretch where they need to gut through it and figure out some solutions on the fly, but the fortunate thing for them is that pretty much all the numbers are in their favor in terms of a favorable playoff outcome.
ONE TIMERS
*Some really intriguing college hockey signings for the Boston Bruins this week as Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren, who led Merrimack to a Hockey East tournament title and an NCAA berth in his second season with the program. The 6-foot-5 Lundgren posted a .920 save percentage at the North Andover campus and has some excellent raw tools for an NHL prospect.
We Spoke with @Merrimack_MIH Head Coach Sunday about the @NHLBruins signing his free agent Goalie Max Lundgren. @hockey_east @wbz @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/A1Jdtk04NG
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) March 29, 2026
The 24-year-old is a bit older in terms of being a prospect, but the window to mature into an NHL asset also skews a little older for goaltenders that typically can until an older age than most position players. There’s also the clear fact that the Bruins' goaltending department clearly knows what they are doing in bringing in prospects off the street, as Brandon Bussi, Michael DiPietro, and Simon Zajicek have all turned into talented pro goalies in their own right.
The Bruins have also signed 24-year-old former UConn forward Ryan Tattle to an AHL contract for the 2026-27 season after the 5-foot-10, 180-pounder finished with 13 goals and 32 points in 38 games for the Huskies at the end of a successful four-year career.
One situation that remains unresolved is former seventh-round pick Andre Gasseau, who finished up his fourth and final year at Boston College this season. While James Hagens immediately signed with the B’s, there are reports circulating that the 22-year-old Gasseau wants to sign a contract that will guarantee him an NHL game this season.
Gasseau is coming off his worst season at BC as injuries dropped him to six goals and 23 points in 23 games for the Eagles and could become an NHL free agent if he’s not signed by the B’s before an August deadline. If he’s looking for a guaranteed NHL look, he may need to end up looking elsewhere for his first pro contract despite turning out to be a pretty decent seventh-round pick by the B’s back in the 2021 NHL Draft.
Evan Gold of the Bruins had no comment today on where things stand with 7th-rounder Andre Gasseau of Boston College
— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) March 30, 2026
Have heard rumblings that Gasseau could be looking for NHL games this season or has his eye on free agency if not signed by 8/15
Pat Brisson is Gasseau's agent
*Bruins fans interested in getting all their info about their favorite hockey team in one app will be pretty to know the “Bruins + TD Garden app” is available to download at the App Store and Google Play. The app creates an easy, streamlined ecosystem for fans to access everything – team content, schedules, live game updates, tickets, parking passes – all in one place. The app essentially integrates all Boston Bruins content with TD Garden and the Hub on Causeway for a single destination for fans.
Users who already have the TD Garden Hub app should see the refreshed app as of this weekend.
As a pretty sweet little bonus from the good folks at the Black and Gold, Bruins fans who download (or update) the new app sooner rather than later will have a chance to win tickets to our April 14 Fan Appreciation Night game vs. NJD.