Marco Sturm coached his first official game behind the bench of the Boston Bruins didn’t go how he envisioned following 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Sunday night at TD Garden to begin the preseason.

The lineup Sturm rolled out had a decent mix of both established veterans and up-and-coming youth, providing plenty of areas for evaluation.

Here’s what stood out from Boston’s preseason opener:

The Learning Curve

The beginning stages of training camp have featured Marco Sturm slowly implementing his system step by step. The new head coach has made it a point to not overwhelm the players with too much information all at once, focusing on the very basic aspects to start.

Little by little, Sturm will slowly introduce more concepts the closer the Bruins get to the regular season. If Sunday’s performance is any indication, they may not be ready for the next step quite yet.

“We’ve went through a lot of information the last three days. I don’t blame my players,” Sturm said. “They worked hard. We just weren’t smart enough, and that’s why we were down right away, 4-1. I’m glad it happened, because now it’s going to give me something to work with, and I know exactly what areas we have to be better in.”

Sturm was enthused with the way his team played in transition, when they were able to get there, that is. Defensive miscues and a lack of overall cohesiveness made it difficult for the Bruins to break the puck out and generate a consistent attack.

If there is one player who perhaps a better grasp on Sturm’s system than anyone else, it’s Tanner Jeannot. After all, it’s not much different from the one he played in Los Angeles last year for the Kings. Having learned it before, Jeannot understands how difficult it can be to pick the system up.

“It’s all about growing and building, and working on the systems,” said Jeannot “Obviously there’s a lot of excitement and maybe some nerves coming out tonight. That’s what the preseason is for. We just got to continue to work on the systems, and execute our jobs. I thought there were a lot of good things that we can learn from tonight.”

Youth Makes First Impressions On Sturm

The over arching theme of Bruins training camp has been internal competition, with a multitude of players vying for a handful of roster spots.

Several of those candidates, including some of the Bruins’ most intriguing young prospects, were in the lineup against Washington and had their first real opportunity to show Sturm what they can do.

“Most of the guys who are in, they’re going to compete for a really good opportunity, so let them battle it out,” Sturm said pregame. “I think it will help them. It’s not just about them, it’s also the combination that works out really well too, so we’ll see. I like young guys on one line, because usually they give you a lot of speed and energy. If they do well, then hopefully, I can use them again.”

Playing on a line with Jeannot, both Fraser Minten and Fabian Lysell impressed from the opening puck drop, playing down hill and generating a couple of scoring chances early on off the forecheck.

Meanwhile, the trio Matthew Poitras, Matej Blumel, and Alexander Steeves had an up and down night.

“This was a good example of these guys. They do care,” said Sturm. “They went all out the last three days. Today, I thought they maybe looked a little bit tired. But that is just experience, too. They tried so hard, but then they didn’t think. There’s a lot of times they just got caught, and didn’t have a good entry by just not being there. Again, the last three days, they’ve been really good. Maybe today wasn’t what they wanted, but I’m really confident those three guys will be better.”

Poitras, especially, had a hard night. It seemed that hard contact found him wherever he went on the ice, including a knee-on-knee hit and a high stick that left him checking to see if he still had all his teeth afterward.

DiPietro Disappoints

One of the most intriguing position battles this year in Bruins training camp is that over the backup goaltender job between Joonas Korpisalo and Michael DiPietro. But so far, it has been much of a competition.

DiPietro started for Boston against the Capitals and struggled by stopping only 16 of the 21 shots he faced while playing just over half the game.

the son’s shining bright tonight pic.twitter.com/svvLwXy7Yt

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 21, 2025

To be fair, DiPietro didn’t get much help from the defense in front of him. At the same time, he didn’t help himself much, either.

It’s still very early in camp, and a lot can change.

Let’s wait and see how Korpisalo looks when he eventually makes his preseason debut.

Morgan Geekie Gets Back To Work

If there are any positives the Bruins can take away from the preseason opener, it’s that Morgan Geekie is already picking up where he left off last season.

Geekie opened the scoring for the Bruins at 6:17 of the first period by blasting a slap shot from between the face-off circles that Capitals goalie Logan Thompson that never even saw.

Geekie 1-0 pic.twitter.com/knsjHptzk2

— Mr. Tenkrat (@PeterTenkrat) September 21, 2025

“He’s looked great in camp,” Sturm said of Geekie. “I didn’t really know him just by watching him, but he’s dialed in. He came in a really good shape. So far, he’s been excellent.”

As encouraging as it was to see Geekie score, it only underscores one of the major questions the Bruins face this season: Who else besides him and David Pastrnak is going to generate goals?

On Sunday, it was Patrick Brown, who buried a shot underneath the crossbar early in the second period. However, it’s unlikely that the Providence Bruins captain will see extended time in the NHL this season.

For now, the search continues.

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