Marco Sturm seeing value in Bruins’ playoff series regardless of outcome

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Marco Sturm seeing value in Bruins’ playoff series regardless of outcome

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Tue, Apr 28, 2026 ·

3 min read

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BOSTON —Marco Sturm wasn’t looking as far ahead as a potential Game 6 or 7, but the Bruins coach was thinking about the future.

After an embarrassing 6-1 loss in Game 4, the Bruins are trying to get back to the level that made them a playoff team. They’ll face the Sabres in Game 5 in Buffalo on Tuesday night.

Sturm wasn’t worried about winning the series yet. He wanted his team, which is on the brink of elimination down 3-1, to prove that they weren’t the group that embarrassed itself in Game 4. He wanted to see the same pushback they delivered to win Game 2 after a difficult loss in Game 1.

“We’re all in the same boat. Nobody is pointing fingers. We’re all in this one. These guys worked so hard all year long. It hurt yesterday, absolutely. But way too many things were good all year long,” he said. “We’re going to stick together. I don’t know the end result. I know the guys care. I know the guys will show a response. I don’t know if it’s going to win, but I’m very confident about going into tomorrow’s game.”

Whatever happens in the rest of this series or this season, Sturm said this game and any that follow are setting the franchise up for down the road.

Seven Bruins have played in their first playoff game in this series. While Sturm acknowledged that winning the series is still a goal and still in reach, every game that the Bruins play is both a fight to continue the present and improve the future.

“That’s why it’s so good to make the playoffs. It feels (expletive) right now. But it’s so good for those kids and even for David (Pastrnak) and some other guys,” Sturm said. “It’s so good to go through things like that. It’s going to help you as a player, as an individual, as a group, moving forward.”

Sturm looked back on his own first playoff series in Boston as a player in 2007-08. The Bruins fell behind Montreal , 3-1. They won two games to draw even but lost in Game 7.

Those were the first postseason games for David Krejci , Milan Lucic and Tim Thomas and the first playoffs for Zdeno Chara as the Bruins’ captain. The early lessons of the 2011 Stanley Cup winner were forged in 2008.

“We failed my first year going into playoffs,” Sturm said. “You just learn from it. You get better. You get more comfortable. Look at our lineup. Some guys have never been through it. They have to go through it. They have to experience it first. I can’t expect them to be the difference already. That’s not fair.”

Sturm wasn’t saying failure was a necessary step. His point was that at the stage his team is at in its development, gaining experience is valuable.

“We’re a competitive group. We want to win,” he continued. “Don’t get me wrong. But it’s great, they learn.”

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