Boston Bruins
The Bruins’ Losing Streak is Over, but the Damage is Already Done

At long last, the Boston Bruins put an to what they hope will be the low point of their season when they snapped their six-game losing streak on Saturday against the Florida Panthers.
“What a big win for us,” David Pastrnak said to reporters in Fort Lauderdale after he scored the winning goal in overtime. “We needed it.”
That’s putting it lightly.
Prior to beating Florida, the Bruins collected just one of a possible 12 points in their last six games. They were outscored 24-11 during that span and held the lead for only 11:05 during what was their longest losing streak in nearly a decade.
But that’s all in the past now, right?
As much as the Bruins would like to simply move on from this rough patch, its damage will be felt for the rest of the season.
How Far The Bruins Have Really Fallen:
Prior to the start of the losing streak on Dec. 29, the Bruins were 20-14-4 with 44 points. Sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division at the time, they had a 73.2 percent chance of making the postseason, according to MoneyPuck.com.
Two weeks later, Boston’s playoff hopes have dropped to 37.7 percent. If the postseason started today, the Bruins would miss the cut based on points percentage.
Playoff odds as of Sunday https://t.co/RbnckCLHNP pic.twitter.com/NuDSQGo3ui
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) January 12, 2025
The loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last Thursday is the one that hurt Boston the most.
Heading into the game, the Bruins led the Bolts by a point in the standings. Not only did they let the Lightning jump ahead of them by losing 4-1, but the Bruins now have a slim chance of ever catching them, as Tampa has four games in hand.
After beginning the season expecting to compete with playoff regulars such as Toronto, Florida, and Tampa Bay for the division crown, the Bruins find themselves in a new class of competition.
The Mushy Middle:
By and large, the Eastern Conference is weak this year, as six teams are currently within three points of each other in the wildcard race.
Like the Bruins, many of these teams struggled early on this season, which helped keep Boston near the top of the standings. But just as the Bruins have fallen off, those teams have found traction.
The forever bottom-feeding Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens have seemingly come out of nowhere, as each has won seven of their last ten games. The Detroit Red Wings are the NHL’s hottest team right now as the winners of seven straight games and look revitalized under Todd McLellan. Even the likes of the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins, which have all looked abysmal at various points this year, are hanging around.
No team, though, poses a bigger threat to the Bruins than the Ottawa Senators.
With a record of 21-18-3, Ottawa sits just two points back of the Bruins in the standings. Even with Linus Ullmark on the shelf for the time being, the Sens have the greatest chances of making the postseason of any team in the wildcard hunt at 59.2 percent.
Ottawa has missed the playoffs in each of the last seven seasons. Detroit’s season has ended after 82 games for eight years running. Now, both teams are making serious pushes to return to the dance.
Meanwhile, the Bruins, who have made the postseason eight years in a row, are in real jeopardy of missing out.
Do or Die:
The good news is that the Bruins are still in better shape than most teams. Still, this is the bleakest their playoff chances have looked in a while, and they can ill afford to have another stretch like this most recent one.
Boston showed on Saturday that it can hang in against some of the league’s best. However, performances such as that have been few and far between.
By scoring twice on the man advantage against the Panthers, the Bruins had multiple power-play goals in a game for the first time since Oct. 16. And as valiant as Jeremy Swayman’s effort was, making 40 saves while the under the duress of 110 Florida shot attempts, rarely has the goalie stolen a game like that this year.
The margin for error for the Bruins is thin, both on the ice and in the standings.
With two pivotal games this week–at home against Tampa on Tuesday and on the road in Ottawa on Saturday–they’ll see either playoff hopes rise just as quickly as they fell or minimized even more than they already are.