Boston Bruins’ 3-1 Start IS NO FLUKE (Here’s Proof)

Boston Bruins’ 3-1 Start IS NO FLUKE (Here’s Proof)

When you look at the Atlantic Division standings so far, and yes, it’s super early, but it’s not going to be as cut and dry as we thought it was going to be. And the Bruins might have a real chance to make some noise. You’re Locked On Bruins, your daily podcast on the Boston Bruins, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up Bruins fans and welcome back to the Locked On Boston Bruins podcast. I’m your host Ian McLaren and this is a daily show where we discuss all things spoke to beat. Today is Tuesday, October 14th. Thank you so much for making Locked on Boston Bruins part of your daily routine, your first listen in fact. and we are part of the Locked On podcast network, your favorite team every single day. On today’s podcast, we are going to do the first installment of the Atlantic Division Power Rankings, looking at the bottom four teams, the top four teams, and where the Boston Bruins rank among them. We’ll also name our Bruin of the day and look back a bit again at yesterday’s game and the impression that David Posternok made late in it by saving a goal literally with his skate. Before we get into all that, a quick reminder. You can find the podcast on social media, locked NHL Bruins. You can find me, my hockey thoughts and dad jokes at Ian C McLaren. I’m a lifelong Boston Bruins fan and I’ve been covering this team and the NHL for various outlets for nearly 20 years now. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. The Bruins lost yesterday. I went on YouTube live afterwards to break it down and talked about how this team just feels a bit different than last year in that how many times last season did we see them go down by a couple goals and then the game just got well away from them and the end result was 8-1 7-1 6-1 yesterday however they showed a great amount of resilience and were able to uh erase the threegoal deficit early on. Weren’t quite able to catch up obviously losing 4-3, but they kept fighting until the very end, including an incredible effort by David Posterno to save an empty net goal and give his team a chance to score at the other end of the ice. We’ll talk about that later on. Altogether, it gives the Bruins a 31-0 start to the season. And today, we’re looking at the Atlantic Division power rankings. It’s incredibly early and yes, they’ve played games against a couple bottom tier teams in the NHL in the Chicago Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres. They also did beat the Washington Capitals, giving them their only loss so far this season. And um again, showed a tremendous amount of fight against a Tampa Bay Lightning team that was kind of desperate for their first win. They had dropped two in a row to begin the season, and that team’s just too good to not win one of their first handful of games. But let’s start here at the bottom of the Atlantic. This is where the Bruins, many projected to finish once again. And by all accounts, it’s once again going to be the Buffalo Sabres. They have just been dreadful to begin this season, including a loss to our Boston Bruins on Saturday. They’re 0 and3. They have a minus8 goal differential. They’ve managed only two goals through three games and they have allowed 10. And it’s getting to the point here where we’re going to see Rasmus Delin, Cage Thompson just wanting out. The Sabres were booed off the ice when they were shut out in Thursday’s home opener on Monday. Fire Adams, meaning Kevin Adams, the general manager. Those chants were echoing throughout Keybank Center. A fan threw a jersey on the ice and captain Rasmine clearly frustrated saying it’s not good enough. A lot of the areas not good power play, not good PK, not good goalending, just can’t catch a break. We got to get out of this BS. we have to step up. This is not acceptable. Tage Thompson echoed that. Uh he’s saying it’s not over. It’s only three games. They’re obviously in a hole they don’t want to be in, but they’ve missed the playoffs in 14 consecutive seasons. They can’t afford to do that once again. And we talk about the Bruins bottoming out last year and how bad things are. fired Don Sweeney, blah blah blah. Like the alternative here, an active tear down and attempted rebuild, you could drop down to where the Buffalo Sabres are, not making the playoffs in 14 straight years. That’s just insane. And so far right now, they’re not convincing anybody that they are going to be not in the basement of the Atlantic Division. in six 567 right now there’s a trio of teams each with one and two records you have the Toronto Maple Leafs the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators. Now the Leafs won their home opener or their season opener against the Montreal Canadians. Then they went out and dropped two in a row to the Detroit Red Wings. The Tampa Bay Lightning, of course, earned their first win Sunday against our Boston Bruins, but prior to that, they had coughed up a huge lead on opening night to the Ottawa Senators, and then they lost to the New Jersey Devils. They’ll be back in action tonight against the Capitals. Another tough test. the Senators, they had that comeback win over Tampa, but since they have dropped games uh to the um who’ they lose to yesterday to the National Predators by a score of 4-1 and they lost to Florida prior to that by a score of 6-2. And this despite Shane Pinto being named one of the NHL’s stars of the week. So Buffalo’s firmly in the basement. Ottawa I’m putting in seventh. They are 1 and2 tied with Toronto and Tampa, but they have a minus six goal differential. They’ve lost two in a row after winning the season opener. You have Toronto who’s lost two in a row. So I’m putting them in sixth despite the fact they have a slightly better goal differential than the Lightning. Toronto’s minus1, Tampa’s minus2. So right now, Buffalo in eighth, Ottawa in seventh, Tampa Bay in sixth, and Toronto in fifth. Those are two or three teams that were in the top four last season that are struggling early on. And teams like Detroit and Boston have been taking advantage and racking up some points to jump up into the top four at the moment. Again, a caveat, it’s extremely early, way too early to be making any uh conclusions, any uh definitive statements about the standings or teams success or lack thereof coming up this season. But you got to play the games. You got to win them. and the Bruins have done enough to warrant a spot in the top four this week and we’ll discuss exactly where they fit here as the podcast continues. The NFL season is well underway as is the NHL and Major League Baseball playoffs. NBA coming up again just in a couple weeks and FanDuel has an offer you do not want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right, folks. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. It makes watching sports even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. And there’s something for everybody here. You can build parlays, you can try player props, futures, or just follow the live lines during games. Whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the app today and get started. put down a $5 bet and if it hits, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the FanDuel app. We’re breaking down the very early, perhaps way too early, Atlantic Division power rankings here on today’s episode of Locked On Boston Bruins. If you’re listening on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube, please do hit that subscribe button if you have not done so already. In fourth this week, I’m putting the Detroit Red Wings. They’re two- one. They’ve come off two impressive wins over the Toronto Maple Leafs. I should mention the Maple Leafs, you know, they’re expected to still be pretty good this season, but you can’t just subtract a guy like Mitch Mner and expect everything to continue to function at the same level. And we’ve already got Craig Baru calling out William Knander even though he’s a point per game player for not doing enough in Mner’s absence. So, I mean, you lose a guy like that, you expect some growing pains as guys figure out their roles or get increased defensive attention. And not to say the Leafs are going to drop all the way out of a playoff spot, but they’re going to be some moments where they will miss Mitch Mner. The Red Wings, on the other hand, yeah, took advantage of that. They’re 2-1, an even zero goal differential. So, I’m putting them right now in fourth place. In third, I’m putting the Montreal Canadians. They are two- one to begin the season. They lost that season opener to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’ve bounced back with a couple wins. And this is a team that is uh pretty deep and able to beat you so many different ways offensively for sure. They beat Detroit 5-1. They beat Chicago by a score of 3-2. And if you look at their stat line, you see how dangerous they can beat. Uh Nick Suzuki leads the way with five points. Then you have Zack Bulduk who was somehow made available by the St. Louis Blues. Cole Cfield, Brendan Gallagher, Oliver Kain. They haven’t even really got much this season so far out of Ivan Demidov one point. Lane Hudson one point. Kirby Doc, Noah Dobson, Uras Lovski all with one point each. Once those guys come alive, this will be a very difficult team and I expect them to remain in the top four for the balance of the season. Rivalry aside, I’m very high on the Montreal Canadians. Uh, so far this season, that brings us to second place and there I am putting our Boston Bruins. They have a record of three and one. They have a goal differential of plus four. 13 goals four, nine against. Those nine goals is second fewest in the Atlantic. Only the Canadians have allowed fewer. They’ve played one fewer game, but when it comes to uh, you know, scoring right now for the Bruins, they’ve been able to put the puck in the net at a more efficient rate than we expected. And they’re proving early on again not to just be a oneline team. In fact, they’re led in scoring by David Postrock, who’s only got one goal through four games, but five total points. tied with second line left winger Pavl Zaka with five points. In fact, only three Bruins have yet to record a point this season. Mason Lauri, Morat Hus Nudinov, and Hampus Lindome who’s only been able to play in like one and a bit games. We’re getting contributions up and down the lineup. Goal leaders right now are Elias Lindholm with two, Morgan Geeki with two, Casey Middlestat with two. So scoring from both lines on the top six. And what is encouraging about the Boston Bruins is the fact that a their penalty kill is proving to be much improved. The power play as well under head coach Steve Spot. And as we’ll discuss coming up later on, they feel a bit more cohesive than they did last season. Offensively, still kind of middle of the pack. 3.25 goals per game, ranks them 14th. Defensively, they are allowing only 2.25 goals against, which ranks them seventh in that category. On the power play, last year they were one of the worst teams. They’re still only 23rd, but 12.5%. What’s really improved for this team is the penalty kill. They’re one of only four teams with a perfect penalty kill so far this season, and that is just uh truly remarkable considering how bad they were on the penalty kill last year. shots on goal. They’re 13th four. They’re still allowing probably too many shots. Uh 26.3. Actually, that’s good for uh 26th in the NHL going from up to down. So, if you’re looking at fewest goals allowed per game, the Bruins are seventh right now. They have had some success on the power play. And if you look at their PDO, which is looking at the uh shooting percentage, save percentage, five on five. Right now they are below 100, 958, an 87.67 save percentage. And a lot of that comes down to Unis Corpalo’s performance yesterday. Now he was hung out to dry often. He’s only got an 851 save percentage so far this season. Seven goals on 47 shots. Jeremy Swayman has a 966 save percentage. I probably would have gone with Swayman yesterday considering you have two days off prior to the uh game coming up Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights. I would have given swaying the start against a very good Tampa Bay Lightning team. two days off, put him in there against Vegas, and then I guess put Corpusal in against Colorado with Swaming going back for the uh game against Utah on Sunday. That would have given him what? Uh six of the first uh No, not six. That would have given him uh five of the first seven games. But I mean, whatever. I think that is the kind of split that we need. We don’t need a backto back here for the Bruins. So, if there’s one kind of miscue or misstep by Marco Sturm, Bob Essencer early on, it was going with that tandem. Uh, SMA was coming off solid games against Washington, Buffalo, thrown back in there against Tampa Bay. there was no reason to not have him start that game, especially with two days off prior to the game against the uh Vegas Golden Knights. So, the Bruins right now I’m putting in second. They have a tie for the best record in the Atlantic with the Florida Panthers, but we’re giving Florida the edge because they are, of course, the reigning Stanley Cup champions, and they’re playing without guys like Alexander Barov and also Matthew Kachchuck, both of whom are injured. Now, they did lose last night to Philadelphia. So, you could make an argument that the Bruins belong in that first place spot. They’ve only beaten right now Chicago, Philly, Ottawa, and then they lost to Philly last night. The Bruins also have a better goal differential, plus three compared to plus four. All of Florida’s wins have come at home as well. They’ve yet to win on the road, but of course they get the benefit of the doubt because they are reigning Stanley Cup champions. So right now we’re going top to bottom. Florida, Boston, Montreal, Detroit, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Buffalo. I don’t see Buffalo getting out of that last place spot, which is great news for the Bruins because that’s just one less team to have to compete with. I do think the Bruins are hitting a bit different so far this season. Got to some debates on X over the weekend based on a post I made about uh fewer distractions this year with Brad Marshon, Jim Montgomery, those situations. I’m going to touch on that as well as Posternach according to Marco Sturm being the clear leader of this team despite having an A and not a C. We’ll touch on all that here as the podcast continues. Most people don’t have a handle on all their financials if you were to ask them just point blank, you know, how how’s your situation here? 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For the record, Brad Marshon was one of my favorite Boston Bruins of all time, and he was indeed a stellar captain for this team. He set the example on and off the ice, and he was not the reason why the Boston Bruins were bad last season. Having said that, you cannot argue in my mind that his contract status, his long-term questionable future with the club along with Jim Montgomery being replaced, you can’t say those helped last season. So, when I went on X and said it’s almost as if the uncertain future of the captain and a coaching change were a hindrance to the Bruins, it was screen grabbed. it was mocked, but I don’t think that’s really a stretch. Like any team if you have their your captain who is may or may not be with the team long term while bringing in a couple guys who you have signed long term who will be here for the foreseeable future wondering what their place is on the team where they fit within the locker room hierarchy and then it culminates in a a trade. Obviously, that was a bit of a hindrance last season and of course his substract subtraction from the team along with Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle that led to the prolonged losing streak to end the season. So, I’m not blaming Brad Marsh on like it’s possible to have some gray areas. It’s not just black and white. It’s not Marshon was the problem or he absolutely had to finish his career in black and gold. Both it can be somewhere in the middle, right? And that’s all I was trying to say. Can you say that his contract status last year and Jim Montgomery being fired helped the Bruins? I don’t think so. So, is it fair to say that it was somewhat of a hindrance? I mean, that’s pretty innocuous. And to say that it’s almost on the same level as uh arguing that he was the problem, like come on, that’s a bit of a stretch. Which brings us to our Bruin of the day. Who is David Posternok? And after yesterday’s game, Marco Sturm said he is our leader. He does everything and he wants to win. He was good on the bench. does everything right. Uh they weren’t able to score on the power play. 0 for five. That was a big problem in the game against Tampa. Uh they did not come up big in that moment, especially late when they were trying to go for the equalizer, but it could have been iced by the Lightning were it not for an unreal effort by David Posternok to get back and not only um yeah, just kind of get in the way blocking a Brandon Hegel shot like right in the crease playing goalender basically to allow the puck to go down to the other end of the ice where the Bruins were able to draw two penalties uh to end the game unable to end it. But, you know, he was coming off or watching Nikita Zidorov just crush Nikita Cooerov and then he was able to snuff out that Hegel scoring chance. Morgan Geeki said after you see it up and down the lineup when your best player is doing that kind of stuff, it’s easy to buy in and it leads to um a chance in the Tampa end. They get a five on three out of it. Was such a great save. They wished they could have put one in for him. But it kind of shows right now just how important Dave Aostnog is to this team. Not just offensively. Again, he’s only got one goal despite the fact they’re three and one, but just that calm presence and that extra effort he put in to give his team a chance in the fourth game of the regular season. Uh Casey Middlestat said it starts with our leaders. They’re trying to set a new standard. A lot of roster turnover, some new guys coming in. Pasta down the stretch last season was one of the best players in the NHL despite the fact it was clearly a white flag waved on the season. A new chapter for the franchise. Pasta middle stat said uh playing goalie taking runs at guys getting physical makes it easy for the rest of the team to get up and play at that level. Charlie Makavoy as well a warrior out there. Middlestat said just a matter of following those guys and they did a heck of a job. We are the Boston Bruins. He said he’s a new guy. He’s played against it plenty of times. He knows what it’s like to face the Bruins. He’s taken pride in being a Bruin. Keep fighting to the very end. And nobody exemplified that better yesterday than David Postron. And that’s why he is today’s Bruin of the day. likely going to be the Bruin of the day multiple times this season because of his offensive efforts. But for him to be out there making that play in the fourth game of the regular season on a Monday afternoon, it shows the commitment that he has to this team. For me, he should be the de facto captain. He should be the captain. I’ve argued that several times despite, you know, bold take that maybe it should be Zidorov. It’s a natural progression from Charara, Berseron, Marshon, Pastnak. They didn’t just want to hand it to him. They needed someone to step up and earn it. And he’s certainly doing that at this time. And he should be in consideration for captain. Maybe they’re committed to going all season without one, but I mean, why? Just give him the seat. Anyways, that is it for today’s episode of Locked On Boston Bruins, my friends. Super early. We can’t yet say the Bruins are different, but when you compare how the season ended to how this season has begun, the vibes are clearly different. There’s more more buy in. There’s more cohesiveness among the guys in the locker room. We’re seeing some scoring up and down the lineup. We’re seeing extra efforts on defense, more physicality, more discipline. Nikita Zadorov leveling guys, but I believe he’s only got one penalty so far, which is a miracle in and of itself. We’re seeing Jeremy Swayman playing at a high level. I I think he should have been in there yesterday. And this road trip coming up is going to be a huge test. Vegas, Colorado, Utah. They’re heading to Vegas today. They’re going to have a couple days of bonding. So stay safe everybody out there. Hopefully it’s uh you know a nice trip to the Hoover Dam instead of a night at the roulette tables just to stay fresh. Uh but whatever they’re up to, I hope they have a good time and uh yeah, these road trips are really good for bonding and bringing guys together to become an even tighter group. uh their family like Sturm said the other day and really seems to be more cohesive vibes than there were last season. Yes, the roster is not perfect. There are holes, but there’s something to be said for um that everybody kind of being on the same page, having a clear hierarchy in the locker room, everybody knowing their role, looking up to David Pos, Charlie Makavoy, Nikita Zadorov. Hopefully Hampus Lindome can get back in there soon and uh we can see the Bruins at full going. but honorary mention of Bruno of the day to Jordan Harris. Scored his first goal in fine fashion yesterday. That’s it for today’s episode, friends. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Please do check out the locked on NHL game night podcast next. Every game, every night until a Stanley Cup champion is crowned, local analysis on a national scale. You can find it on Locked on NHL’s YouTube channel or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please do subscribe to this podcast as well on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube if you have not done so already. Please take care of yourselves, friends. Take care of each other and we’ll talk to you here on the next episode of Locked On Boston Bruins, part of the Locked On podcast network, your favorite team every single day.

The Boston Bruins’ 3-1 start to the 2025-26 season isn’t smoke and mirrors — it’s the result of structure, buy-in, and leadership under Marco Sturm.
Host Ian McLaren breaks down why Boston’s early success looks real this time:

David Pastrňák’s takeover as the team’s emotional and on-ice leader.

Improved special teams driving momentum in key moments.

Depth scoring that’s finally supporting the top line.

Jeremy Swayman’s rebound form anchoring the group.

Ian also ranks the Atlantic Division through two weeks — with Boston sitting second behind Florida — and previews a tough three-game road swing through Vegas, Colorado, and Utah.

Are the Bruins turning the page on last year’s chaos? Or just teasing fans again?

Find out why this version of the Bruins looks built to last on Locked On Boston Bruins — Your Team, Every Day.

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