The rubber is about to meet the road for Marco Sturm and the Bruins.
After beginning their season with three wins in four games, the Bruins are taking their act out West for a three-in-four that’ll include stops in Vegas, Colorado, and Utah. First stop on that trip? Old friend Bruce Cassidy and the Golden Knights.
The Golden Knights come into this game at 2-0-2 on the year, but have remained a potent-as-ever offense, averaging 3.50 goals per game, and with a top-10 offense in both power-play success and shots per game. They’re also arguably deeper than ever before, too, after adding Mitch Marner in free agency this past summer.
Coming off a 4-3 loss to the Lightning on Monday, the Bruins will remain without Hampus Lindholm (lower body) for a third straight game, while Jeremy Swayman is expected to get the call in net for the Black and Gold.
Here’s a look at five players to keep an eye on tonight out in Vegas…
Morgan Geekie
Sep 21, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Morgan Geekie (39) skates in the offensive zone during the first period against the Washington Capitals at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images)
Dare we say that the Morgan Geekie the Bruins know, love, and paid this past offseason officially arrived on Monday afternoon? After what you’d consider a slower start to his season based on last year’s 33-goal breakout, Geekie got back to his standards with an absolute rocket of a snipe through the Bolts’ Jonas Johansson off a faceoff win. It was such a quick release that Geekie’s centerman on that play, Pavel Zacha, admitted that he didn’t even see the shot fired on net.
And going against a team as deep as the Golden Knights on Thursday, the Bruins are going to need more of that out of Geekie opposite David Pastrnak.
The good news? Geekie has loved going against the Knights since joining the Bruins, with five goals in four games against Vegas over the last two seasons.
Nikita Zadorov
Mar 20, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov (91) warms up before a game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. (Stephen R. Sylvanie/Imagn Images)
The Bruins will come into this game down Hampus Lindholm for the third straight game, meaning it’ll be another night where Nikita Zadorov is leaned on for hard minutes, and likely against the best the other team has to offer. That’s nothing new for Zadorov, obviously, especially after going head-to-head with Tampa Bay’s Hagel-Point-Kucherov line for the majority of Monday’s game at TD Garden. And Zadorov has certainly upped his intensity (to a noticeable degree) with Lindholm out, and has racked up three straight games of at least six hits.
The 6-foot-6 Zadorov also comes into this contest coming off a 2024-25 sample against Vegas that included one goal and one assist, and five hits, in two games.
Casey Mittelstadt
Sep 29, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt (11) plays the puck through the neutral zone during the first period against the Flyers at TD Garden. (Eric Canha-Imagn Images)
With goals in three straight games, the Bruins are starting to get some (much-needed) steady contributions out of their second line. The Bruins’ Casey Mittelstadt has been the goal scorer in two of those games, and the Bruins would love more of the same out of No. 11 in tonight’s game at T-Mobile Arena.
But Mittelstadt’s game will have to be about more than scoring in this one.
Never considered a particularly strong center option when it comes to faceoffs, Mittelstadt does come into this game with positive nights at the dot at the dot in three straight games, including a 6-for-10 mark on Monday. On the season, Mittelstadt is currently sitting at what would be a career-high 61.8 percent success rate at the faceoff dot. The Golden Knights, meanwhile, enter play with the NHL’s second-best faceoff percentage as a team, at 58.5 percent. Against a team like this, the B’s are going to need to possess the puck and avoid those heavy offensive waves from Vegas, and one of the ways to do that is to win your draws.
Mittelstadt also comes into this game with five goals and seven points in 11 career games against the Golden Knights.
Mitch Marner
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 08: Mitch Marner #93 of the Vegas Golden Knights skates in the third period of their game at T-Mobile Arena on October 08, 2025. (Candice Ward/Getty Images)
Nobody torched the 2024-25 Bruins worse than Mitch Marner. Honestly, the dude took a flamethrower to the entire team every single time he was on the ice with them. In just four head-to-heads with Boston last year, Marner racked up three goals and 12 points, giving him a three-point edge on the next-closest Bruins killer, and double the points of the fifth-most productive skater against Boston.
Of course, that’s not at all out of character for Marner. Since jumping into the NHL in 2016, nobody has more points against the Bruins than Marner and his 46 points in just 28 showdowns with the Bruins. That’s 11 more than second-place Sidney Crosby and his 35 points, and in four more games against Boston than Marner.
In other words, the Bruins weren’t sad to see Marner move from Toronto to Vegas this past offseason. But they’ll have to face him tonight, and Marner is off to a solid start as a Golden Knight, with four assists and a plus-5 through four games played.
Pavel Dorofeyev
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 11: Pavel Dorofeyev #16 of the Golden Knights looks on during the third period against the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on October 11, 2025. (Olivia Vanni/Getty Images)
After a 35-goal explosion a season ago, the Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev has picked up where he left off, with five goals through four games this season. The Russian-born wing is also coming off his quietest outing of the season, with zero points and just one shot on goal in over 18 minutes of play in a showdown with the Flames this past Tuesday, and has a golden opportunity to get right against the B’s.
Dorofeyev also lit the Bruins up for four goals in two head-to-heads last season, making him one of just eight players to score at least four goals against the Bruins last season, and one of just two Western Conference players do to it.