The Boston Bruins’ awful start to the 2024-25 NHL season cost head coach Jim Montgomery his job, and now it’s up to the players to turn things around or further changes will have to be made.
The Bruins announced Montgomery’s firing on Tuesday. Assistant coach Joe Sacco will take over on an interim basis.
The number of players on this roster who have met or exceeded expectations is extremely small — maybe about four players. One of them, defenseman Hampus Lindholm, is out of the lineup due to injury.
It would be impossible to pinpoint just one, two or even three problems plaguing this Bruins team amid its 8-9-3 start. The offense is inconsistent and often non-existent. The goaltending has been poor. Special teams have been among the worst in the league. There’s been a surprising lack of discipline, evidenced by Boston’s league-high 91 minor penalties taken.
“There’s a lot of guys that are underperforming right now, and as a staff, we’re going to pull it out of them. I’m confident we are, but it’s going to take some work, it’s not going to happen overnight,” Sacco told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “But we feel we have a good enough team, good enough character in that room where we’re going to get it out of them.”
Pretty much the entire roster needs to play a lot better, but which specific players do the Bruins most need massive improvement from?
Here’s a list of five notable names.
Elias Lindholm, Center
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The Bruins signed Lindholm to a seven-year, $54.25 million contract ($7.75 million salary cap hit) to be a No. 1 center who could drive offense for both himself and teammates. But so far, he’s been a complementary player at best, and that’s unacceptable for a player making just under $8 million annually.
Lindholm started out hot with five points (two goals, three assists) in the first three games. But he’s been invisible most games since, including a 17-game goal drought. He has just four assists during that span.
Lindholm began the season at first-line center alongside Pavel Zacha at left wing and David Pastrnak at right wing. The hope for the Bruins was that this line would develop instant chemistry and help Lindholm regain the form he showed during the 2021-22 season when he tallied career highs of 42 goals and 40 assists playing for the Calgary Flames. For whatever reason, the chemistry between Lindholm and Pastrnak just hasn’t developed.
Lindholm has nine points in 20 games overall, with only three at 5-on-5.
“He missed a lot of camp so he didn’t develop some chemistry with who we envisioned him playing and then they got off to a rough start and haven’t,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said of Lindholm at a press conference Wednesday.
“So, we bounced it around. They found a little bit more traction in terms of where their positionings are now in [Pavel] Zacha and [David] Pastrnak playing together. Brad [Marchand] and Elias, but it’s not translated to the results we want. So, it needs to be better. He’s acknowledged that publicly. It needs to be better.”
Lindholm’s struggles also have hurt the power play, a unit that ranks last in the league with a 11.7 percent success rate. Lindholm hasn’t excelled in the bumper role. He has zero goals and just three assists on the power play.
Lindholm has to be more aggressive looking to score. He has tallied zero or one shot on net in 11 of 20 games. The Bruins are the second-lowest scoring team in the league at 2.40 goals per game. Lindholm needs to be a goal scorer for the Bruins because they don’t have a ton of high-end skill on the roster.
After tallying a career-high 82 points during that 2021-22 campaign, Lindholm’s scoring has dropped to 64 points in 2022-23 and 44 last season. He’s on pace for 37 this season, which would be a third straight decline. If this trend doesn’t reverse, that’s a huge problem for the Bruins considering he’s signed for six more seasons.
- 2021-22 with Flames: 3.01 points/60 minutes
- 2022-23 with Flames: 2.57
- 2023-24 with Flames/Canucks: 1.89/1.56
- 2024-25 with Bruins: 1.47
Charlie Coyle, Center
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Coyle set a career high in scoring last season with 60 points, including a personal best 25 goals. He took his offensive game to a higher level in the first year the Bruins were without top-two centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
Coyle’s production has taken a significant step back so far this season. He has five points (four goals, one assist) in 20 games, putting him on pace for just 16.4 points. It would be shocking if he finished the season below 20 points, but the fact that’s producing so much less offensively compared to 2023-24 is a huge problem for a Bruins team that lacks scoring depth, particularly at center.
Coyle is also below 50 percent on faceoffs (49.2). He has won at least 51.6 percent of his draws in each of the last two seasons. Coyle has been on the ice for 10 goals against at 5-on-5, which is the second-highest total among B’s forwards.
Coyle is one of the Bruins’ best two-way players. He plays in almost every situation. In fact, he’s the only forward on the team averaging more than two minutes of ice time per game on both the power play (2:44) and penalty kill (2:53). He needs to be more productive offensively and lead the charge on the penalty kill — a unit that has struggled tremendously through 20 games.
Nikita Zadorov, Defenseman
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The Bruins signed Zadorov to a six-year, $30 million deal on Day 1 of free agency. The veteran defenseman was expected to add much-needed size and toughness to the blue line, as well as defensive ability, penalty killing and maybe a little offense, too. He has the potential to be a tone-setter with his physical style of play.
Unfortunately for the B’s, Zadorov has had the opposite effect. He’s been one of the most undisciplined players in the league and leads all defensemen with 13 minor penalties. He’s made little impact offensively, too, tallying zero goals and two assists in the last 15 games. He has registered zero or one shot on net in 10 of those 15 games.
“We want another level from him as well. He’s shown pockets of it,” Sweeney said of Zadorov on Wednesday. “But he got off to a tough start with taking too many penalties and putting himself in that trying to be an aggressive player, and bring what the identity of what’s been described as, and find himself in the box. And now all of a sudden, you’re playing a little more tentatively, and we need him to reassert himself.”
Zadorov has a chance to be a real difference maker if he can set a physical tone and not go over the edge. He can’t be taking so many penalties. The Bruins need to be a lot tougher to play against, and Zadorov has the size and skill set to lead that charge.
Charlie McAvoy, Defenseman
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McAvoy is one of the top 10 most talented defensemen in the world. He has the potential to dominate games at both ends of the ice, while setting the tone for his team each game with huge hits and physical play. He’s also the second-highest paid player on the team ($9.5 million annually on average) and wears an “A” on his sweater as assistant captain.
McAvoy’s performance through 20 games has been subpar.
From an offensive standpoint, he’s struggling to make a consistent impact. McAvoy scored in each of the first two games back in October. He has one goal in the 18 games since. He is scoring 0.91 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 — he has never finished below 1.0 for an entire season.
McAvoy leads all B’s defensemen with 4:17 of power-play ice time per game, and yet he has zero points with the man advantage since the second game of the campaign. This is a major reason why Boston ranks dead last in power-play percentage.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of McAvoy’s play so far has been his lack of discipline. His 12 minor penalties taken are the second-most of any defenseman in the league. The Bruins need McAvoy on the ice as much as possible. He’s an elite, all-situations player. Spending too much time in the penalty box is a major problem.
Expectations for McAvoy are always to be a super impactful player at both ends of the ice. But with Hampus Lindholm out of the lineup, the responsibility on McAvoy is even greater.
Jeremy Swayman, Goaltender
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Swayman has been a top 10 goalie over the last three seasons, and after the Linus Ullmark trade in June, there was no debate over who was Boston’s No. 1 netminder. But Swayman wasn’t signed until two days before the season opener. He landed an eight-year, $64 million contract, making him the fifth-highest paid goalie in the league.
He has not lived up to that contract so far. Not even close.
Swayman has posted a 5-7-2 record with a .884 save percentage and a 3.47 GAA. He ranks 71st out of 75 qualifying goalies with minus-7.3 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. His .916 save percentage over the previous three seasons combined ranked sixth-best in the league over that span.
How much of Swayman’s slow start can be attributed to him missing all of training camp and the preseason because he was unsigned? That’s not easy to quantify, but it’s also not easy to jump back into the fray as a goalie when you’re not facing NHL shots every day in practice or games.
“I think Jeremy would acknowledge that he hasn’t played as well as what he’s capable of playing and we fully expect him to get back there,” Sweeney said Wednesday.
Goaltending has been the Bruins’ strength for many years. It has been a weakness this season mostly due to Swayman. Backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo, who came over in the Ullmark trade, has played well with a .901 save percentage and 2.74 GAA. Korpisalo has a .932 save percentage in three starts this month.
The Bruins aren’t going anywhere if Swayman doesn’t turn things around ASAP. They need goaltending to bail them out when the offense is struggling to score and there are defensive lapses — two common problems for the team through 20 games. Swayman is being paid like a top-five goalie, and that’s the level of performance the Bruins need to not only make the playoffs, but win a round or two if they get there.