Boston Bruins
Bruins Have Options To Fix Scoring Troubles, But Will They Use Them?
The Boston Bruins were brutally honest with themselves as they assembled their roster ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Already thin on speed and skill and without much available in free agency, the Bruins invested in “piss and vinegar,” hoping that playing a grinding defensive style would be enough to win, so long as top players like David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, and Elias Lindholm produced on offense.
It worked out to start. The Bruins won their first three games out of the gate to begin the year.
Since then, though, they’ve lost three straight in regulation as their flaws have begun to inevitably show. The P&V has been plentiful and, for the most part, effective, but Boston’s best hasn’t held up its end of the bargain, lately.
In a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night, the Bruins’ top two lines were outshot 9-1 and generated just two scoring chances.
CHECK OUT: No Air To Bruins’ Offense In Loss To Avalanche
“Our top guys were not the top guys again,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm told reporters in Denver. “If you look at Colorado and our team, that’s the difference. That’s just the way it is. It doesn’t matter which team you are, your best players have to be your best players. That was the biggest disappointment tonight.”
It was the second game in a row that the Bruins’ most impactful players no showed.
On Thursday night in Las Vegas, the team fell to the Golden Knights in a track meet, 6-5, but that was with the bottom of the lineup providing the majority of the offense.
“They kept us in the game pretty much,” said Pastrnak afterward. “We have to be better, the top two lines. We’re getting a lot of ice time there, and we have to create more five on five.”
Entering the matchup against Colorado, Sturm shuffled his lineup for the first time this year.
Geekie was taken off the first line left wing. Zacha took his place next to Lindholm and Pastrnak. On the second line, Geekie skated next to Casey Mittelstadt and Mikey Eyssimont, while Viktor Arvidsson dropped out of the top six.
Their offense stagnant, Sturm mixed up the lines again mid-game, elevating Eyssimont to play with Lindholm and Pastrnak.
Eyssimont has fit in well with the Bruins so far. But the fact he, a career bottom-six forward who has played for five different organizations over five seasons, is being asked to suddenly play a top line role underscores how few options the Bruins have at the moment.
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As the Bruins opened the regular season, Eyssimont, as well as other depth players such as Jeffrey Viel, earned spots on the roster by beating out younger competition.
Offensive minded prospects Matthew Poitras, Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov, all struggled in training camp. All were sent down to the AHL Providence, after not making of an argument that they were deserving of a spot on the NHL squad at the time. Neither did Matej Blumel nor Alexander Steeves for that matter.
Now, though, the Bruins are essentially making one for them.
While Boston’s offense has fallen flat, Providence is lighting up the AHL. Merkulov is the league’s leading scorer through four games with seven points. Lysell has six, as do Blumel and Steeves. While Poitras is yet to score a goal, he’s already recorded five assists.
If Sturm is going to juggle his lines anyway, why not use someone who fits the role they’re being placed into.
Of course, none of those players down in the AHL have proven themselves at the highest level. But they have shown that, without a doubt, they’re the type of players the Bruins need right now.
Will the team acknowledge them, or will it just keep trying to turn piss and vinegar into wine?
