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10 noteworthy stats after a month of hockey for 2025-26 Bruins
The Bruins' defensive structure has tightened up during this five-game win streak.
The Boston Bruins’ 2025-26 season has been anything but predictable for Marco Sturm and Co.
Boston’s progression under its first-year head coach has been about as linear as a Tarantino script — with a three-game win streak undercut by six straight losses in regulation … followed by a current stretch that includes six wins in seven contests.
It remains to be seen what type of ceiling this hard-working, albeit flawed, roster boasts.
But there are several encouraging — and worrying trends — that can be gleaned from the first month of the 2025-26 season.
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Here are a few stats that have stood out.
1.89: Expected 5-on-5 goals against per 60 minutes in last three games
Slowly but surely, it looks as though the Bruins are starting to buy into Sturm’s defensive system.
Through the first few weeks of the 2025-26 season, Boston’s lack of defensive fortitude stood as their most confounding shortcoming — especially on a team whose perceived identity was rooted in a stingy approach in the D-zone.
Through the first 13 games of the season, the Bruins were surrendering 2.95 expected goals per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play — the fourth-worst mark in the NHL. In other words, the Bruins routinely coughed up quality chances in front of both Joonas Korpisalo and Jeremy Swayman.
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But things have tightened up in Boston’s own zone during this current winning streak. Over their last three games, the Bruins’ 1.89 expected goals against per 60 is third in the league — trailing only the Avalanche and Kings.
On Saturday against a high-powered Hurricanes lineup, Carolina generated just seven high-danger chances at 5-on-5 play in a 2-1 Bruins victory, while the Senators — the same club that dropped seven goals on Boston just 10 days prior — only produced four 5-on-5 high-danger chances on Thursday night in a 3-2 overtime victory.
The Bruins will need a longer sample size to validate that they’re built to be one of the tougher defensive teams in the NHL.
But this recent stretch should validate what Sturm has been preaching when it comes to how this team needs to play to accurate points over a regular clip.
“We’re doing enough right things to hang in games, and if you give yourself a chance — you’ve put yourself in a spot to get points, and that’s what this is all about,” Sean Kuraly said Thursday.
7-1-0: Bruins’ record when Hampus Lindholm is in the lineup
It can’t be understated just how impactful Lindholm’s return from a nagging lower-body ailment has been for righting the ship for Boston so far this season. Beyond his own play in all three zones, Lindholm’s presence has also allowed Sturm to put together a stout top pairing of Charlie McAvoy and Nikita Zadorov, who have dominated together.
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Boston’s penalty kill, in particular, has thrived when the 31-year-old Swede has hopped over the boards in shorthanded situations. In the eight games that Lindholm has played so far this season, Boston’s PK has snuffed out 28 of the opposition’s 29 power plays (96.6 percent). Without Lindholm in the lineup, that PK is only operating at 70.9 percent (22-for-31).
1.87: 5-on-5 goals scored per 60 minutes when Pastrnak & Geekie are skating together
One of the top catalysts for Morgan Geekie’s breakout 33-goal season last year was his chemistry on a line with David Pastrnak — with the duo generating a whopping 4.19 goals scored per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play.
That production as linemates hasn’t exactly translated so far this season, with that same duo now generating 1.87 goals scored per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 action in 2025-26.
The absence of Elias Lindholm at 1C will certainly hamper that grouping, but the case can be made that Boston’s already overachieving offensive output will receive another lift once Pastrnak and Geekie get back on the same page.
Even with Geekie not gelling right away this year with Pastrnak, he’s still operating on a 51-goal pace with 10 goals in 16 games. As noted by Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Geekie is tied with Pastrnak for the most goals in the NHL since Nov. 27, 2024 with 42 — trailing only Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl.
17: Blocked shots per game for the Bruins
Another strong testament to the Bruins’ buy-in under Sturm’s defensive preaching has been their willingness to eat pucks in the D-zone — with Boston’s 17.00 blocks per game good for fifth in the NHL.
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It’s another welcome sight for Sturm that the players have now doled out a “Grinder Award” after games, instead of awarding the game puck to whichever player might have stuffed the stat sheet the most on that particular night.
Andrew Peeke, who blocked two shots and took his fair share of punishment amid a two-assist performance against Ottawa, took home the accolade on Thursday.
“It’s not coming from me, it’s coming from the players,” Sturm said of the “Grinder Award.” “And so they realized it too. [Peeke] took a pretty big hit, he had to get off quickly. He came back and was not shy at all. That’s why he’s big for our team, because he does the dirty work.”
1.8: Goals saved above expected this season by Boston’s goalies
The good news? The Bruins’ goaltending duo of Swayman and Korpisalo has improved from last season — back when subpar netminding melded with porous defensive structure on a regular basis.
Boston is getting some timely saves from both Swayman and Korpisalo this season, but they’re also not exactly stealing games quite yet.
In total, the Bruins’ goalie tandem is sporting just 1.8 goals saved above expected (per MoneyPuck) — with some of that a byproduct of Korpisalo 56th out of 71 qualifying goals with a -1.7 goals saved above expected. Swayman ranks 20th among that same pool of 71 goals with 3.5 goals saved above average.
The Bruins are getting solid goaltending so far, which is far better than what they had last season. But there is still plenty of room for improvement.
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For those keeping track — the goalie with the worst goals saved above expected so far this season? Linus Ullmark with a -8.2 goals saved above expected rate.
2: Goals allowed during a Zadorov-McAvoy pairing’s 5-on-5 ice time
It should come as little surprise that the Bruins’ defensive resurgence — and an uptick in 5-on-5 production by McAvoy (six assists in last five games) has come since Sturm swapped out Mason Lohrei and placed Nikita Zadorov next to McAvoy on Boston’s top D pairing.
After a Lohrei-McAvoy pairing were knocked for 10 goals against over 120:21 of 5-on-5 reps together, the Bruins have only coughed up two goals over the Zadorov-McAvoy pairing’s 101:06 of 5-on-5 action.
For now, it looks like Boston finally has a stout top defensive duo.
5: 5-on-5 goals scored by Boston’s second line since Mittelstadt’s healthy scratch
Since Sturm opted to sit out Mittelstadt for a game on Oct. 19 against Utah, both he and the rest of Boston’s second line have seemingly found their stride. With Mittelstadt shifted to the wing and Pavel Zacha entrenched at center, the Bruins have outscored opponents, 5-2, and outshot them, 44-33, over the last nine games (88:31 of 5-on-5 ice time) that the Mittelstadt-Zacha-Arvidsson line has appeared in.
It’s been a welcome turnaround for a segment of the depth chart that had plenty of question marks entering the season. Now, the case can be made that this trio is Sturm’s most-trusted forward grouping over the last few weeks.
3: Goals by Bruins defensemen
One avenue that the Bruins have yet to take when it comes to generating offense this season has been peppering the net from the blue line.
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Only the Canucks, Panthers, and Golden Knights have fewer goals scored by defensemen than the Bruins — with two of Boston’s three tallies from D-men coming from players who currently aren’t in the lineup in Mason Lohrei and Jordan Harris.
Even if the Bruins’ blue-liners aren’t finding the back of the net, McAvoy in particular has still been an dangerous playmaker. McAvoy’s 12 assists are tied for second in the NHL among defensemen with fellow BU Terrier Lane Hutson — with only Cale Makar (14) posting more helpers so far this season.
31: Projected points for Tanner Jeannot
The Bruins have had several contributors pull on the rope over the last few weeks, headlined in recent games by youngsters like Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.
But Jeannot — who raised plenty of eyebrows when Boston handed him a five-year contract in July — has been a pretty steady presence further down on the team’s depth chart.
He’s largely been as advertised as a physical presence, but his playmaking poise — as evidenced by his set-up on Sean Kuraly’s goal on Thursday — has also shown through at times.
Jeannot is currently on pace for 31 points this season, which would mark his highest scoring output since his breakout 24-goal, 41-point campaign in 2021-22.
For those keeping tabs, Trent Frederic — who signed an eight-year, $30.8 million extension with the Oilers — has scored just one goal and zero assists over 15 games this year.
70: Bruins minor penalties taken
The Bruins might boast an elite penalty kill this season (at least when Hampus Lindholm is playing). But Boston needs to curtail its knack for sending players to the sin bin.
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Through 16 games, the Bruins have been knocked for 70 total minor penalties — 11 more than the next NHL team in the Nashville Predators.
Taxing their shorthanded unit every night is eventually going to catch up to Boston over the span of a long season, while multiple stretches spent killing penalties is also going to eat into the reps afforded to playmakers like Pastrnak, Mittelstadt, and others.
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