The Bruins took a big step this year, but to contend, bigger ones await

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The Bruins took a big step this year, but to contend, bigger ones await

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Sun, May 3, 2026 ·

4 min read

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BOSTON — Marco Sturm said for this Bruins team, in this stage of its development, there was value to making the NHL playoffs even if Boston didn't advance out of the first round.

He was right.

There was value for the nine different Bruins , who experienced playoff hockey for the first time in this series. They had a chance to experience firsthand how difficult playoff hockey actually is, even in the first round. That's an important step in understanding what they're reaching for.

It was important too, that the work everyone on the roster put in this year be rewarded.

But for Boston, to move back toward being contenders again, there have to be many more steps that follow.

The challenge for the Bruins, after Friday's season-ending 4-1 loss to the Sabres , is striking the right balance between deserved pride in their unexpected success and motivation to keep from being satisfied.

The 2025-26 season was important for the Bruins, who returned to the playoffs and rebuilt their culture after finishing near the bottom of the league last year.

Sturm, a first-year coach, appreciated how much this team bought into his system and came together to exceed preseason expectations.

"They wanted to prove everyone wrong," Sturm said. "These guys care. We're (in the playoffs) for a reason. We played a hell of a season because of the character we have in that room. Unfortunately, we came up short."

Nikita Zadorov 's frustration was closer to the surface.

"From the year we had last year to the year we had this year, is a big improvement," he said. "It's a missed opportunity obviously. With the group we had, and the belief we had, and the season we had. To finish up like that is disappointing. It sucks. It really does."

The front office and the coaching staff should be motivated too. At the end of the season, the biggest issue for the Bruins was the same one that created the low expectations going into the year:

Do they have enough scoring? In the playoffs, that answer was no.

Friday's loss continued a concerning trend. Boston scored just five goals in their last four games and just three goals in three games at TD Garden.

To continue improving next year, they'll need to find answers on offense that were much harder to come by in the playoffs than in the regular season. Fraser Minten , Marat Khusnutdinov , Casey Mittelstadt , Charlie McAvoy and Mark Kastelic — each double-digit scorers during the regular season — were held without a goal in the six postseason games.

The Bruins either need to acquire more players who can score or the players they have will have to get better at putting the puck in the net.

"It was a little bit going to the tough areas. That was a little bit of an issue," Sturm said. "If you look in the playoffs at how goals get scored, everything is in the paint. For some reason we didn't get there. We didn't get the garbage goals we needed at this time of year. That was a big difference."

When the Bruins' attempted to create their current bigger, tougher, harder-to-play-against roster last year, they were motivated a by getting pushed around in their last two trips to the playoffs by Florida , a team that was big, tough and hard to play against.

But in this series, the Bruins struggled to matchup against a Buffalo team that was fast, skilled and had more scoring options.

Boston has to find a middle ground that helps that matchup with the old Panthers and current Sabres or they're going to be stuck hovering around the playoff cutline.

"We made the playoffs. But we're still a wild card team," Pastrnak said. "So yeah, we have much more to improve."

Zadorov agreed.

"It's a motivation for sure. We have a big summer coming," Zadorov said. "There's a lot of ways to improve this team, we want to push harder next year to go even deeper."

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