BRIGHTON, Mass. — Nikita Zadorov chose to sign with the Boston Bruins last summer because of the franchise’s tradition of making the playoffs and competing for championships. 

Neither of those things happened during his first year with the team. 

Instead, the Bruins missed the postseason for the first time in almost a decade and finished with the fifth-worst record in the NHL. 

Back for his second year with the club, Zadorov’s focus has slightly shifted. No longer is he simply trying to just carry on the Bruins’ tradition. He’s hoping to restore it altogether.

“We didn’t get it done last year, and it’s unacceptable for this city and this club to not make the playoffs,” Zadorov said. “We’re going to redeem ourselves. We got to go back out there and do our job and make the playoffs this year. That’s how we look at it.”

The path back to the postseason began on Tuesday as Zadorov and a group of 24 other Bruins players, including David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, skated at Warrior Ice Arena in a captain’s practice. 

The informal two-hour affair featured several competitive drills and a full-squad scrimmage, but the level of intensity wasn’t nearly as close to what it will be when training camp begins in a few weeks on Sep. 17. 

Most, if not all, of the issues the Bruins faced last year can be traced back to training camp, where the team for was mostly disorganized and lacking urgency. This year, as the Bruins welcome in several new faces into the fold, that won’t be the case.

“You want to have a good camp,” said Zadorov. “You want to get to know all the guys. We’re going to have a lot of new faces in our room again this year, so we’ll get a mojo going, get a chemistry going, and then we’ll see from there. I mean, obviously the main goal for us is to get back to the playoffs and show our fans, show the city what we can do.”

READ MORE: Nikita Zadorov Joins Bruins Seeking Consistency And A Championship

Being one of the new players last year, Zadorov had to go through an adjustment period before he felt truly comfortable inside the Bruins’ dressing room. Now one of the strongest voices on the team, it’s his job to help the new arrivals settle in, even if that’s in his own unique way. 

“I’m a pretty direct person, if you guys can’t tell, right?,” Zadorov said. “Sometimes I come in a little bit too hard to some people, so it takes them some time to adjust to me. But I’m sure my teammates will tell them, ‘Hey, he’s not an idiot. It just comes from his heart.’” 

However, of all their additions, none is more important to the Bruins than that of head coach Marco Sturm. 

By all accounts, he and Zadorov have a similar mentality when it comes to communicating, as a result of their shared experience playing under Darryl Sutter during their respective careers.

“Darryl Sutter was my favorite coach I ever had in my life,” said Zadorov. “I feel like we have lot a lot of mutual interest in that. I like old school coaches. I like direct coaches. I like hard coaches. I’m not afraid to take a heat from them when I deserve it, so long as you tell in my face, as long as you’re fair with me and give me what I deserve. I think that’s that’s a good way to coach.” 

It’s not clear quite yet how the Bruins will play under Sturm from an X’s and O’s standpoint this year, but thing is for sure: they look a lot more like the team that Zadorov, and the rest of us, expect them to be.

“This organization, it’s been setting the standards in professional sports all over this country for such a long time,” Zadorov said. “There’s a standard in here, and there’s expectation from our fans. We’re just going to go out there and play from our hearts. 

“We got to show it on the ice. We can talk whole day in here about what we got to change, what we got to do, but we got to go out there and compete for the crest on our chests and for the for this team, for the city.”

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