After just one month of hockey, analyzing any teams has the potential be a difficult endeavor, especially in the 2024-25 season where there have been surprises on both ends of the spectrum. Some teams, out of the gate, have gone on surprisingly-solid runs (I’m looking at you Winnipeg Jets), some have come out flat, and some are right in the middle of the road.
Two years removed from winning the Presidents’ Trophy, the Boston Bruins find themselves somewhere in the middle of the pack: not a bad start to the season, but also not a great start either – at least by their standards.
Related: Should the Bruins Panic About Their Slow Start?
Going into November, 11 games into the season, the Bruins find themselves sitting at 4-6-1 and while there are 71 games left to go and to pick up the slack, it has not looked good so far for Boston. On the bright side, it could be miles worse.
So far, the biggest detriment to the Bruins’ start has been their inability to score goals and inability to defend opposing goal scorers as their goal differential currently sits at minus-13 with 29 goals for and 42 against. Where to correctly attribute these results is up in the air at the moment. Perhaps the goaltending is out of sync, perhaps the defense is a bit slow out of the gate, or maybe even the forwards just don’t mesh together yet.
Despite their slow start, however, there have been some bright spots for Boston to start the season, and here are three players who stand out as stars for them through one month of hockey.
Third Star – Elias Lindholm
Elias Lindholm has had a solid start to his time in Boston since signing a seven-year deal in the offseason with the team. Lindholm has shown an ability to be the true top-line center the Bruins have searched for since Patrice Bergeron’s retirement.
Thus far, he has played in all 11 games and has tallied two goals and four assists for six points. While those numbers are not at the top of the list for the Bruins, Lindholm sits tied for third and second on the team in goals and assists, respectively. The fact he has not spent any time in the penalty box is really what puts him in the three stars though.
In what was a very undisciplined October, Lindholm is one of three players, outside of Boston’s two goaltenders, who have not committed a penalty. The other two are Justin Brazeau and Andrew Peeke. In fact, Lindholm and Peeke are the only two players who have played in all 11 games and have not committed a penalty.
While Lindholm has been able to set an example discipline-wise, the next player has actually made a sizeable impact on the scoreboard thus far.
Second Star – Cole Koepke
Cole Koepke is probably not the player many expected to be in this position, and trust me, it was a tough choice between him and fellow newcomer Mark Kastelic. When he was originally signed in the offseason to a one-year, two-way deal at the league minimum, he wasn’t seen as much more than a depth piece.
Koepke’s fate seemed all but sealed, but at the end of the preseason Fabian Lysell was sent to the Providence Bruins and Koepke made his first the NHL roster out of training camp for the first time in his young career. To say that Boston has made the right decision would be putting it mildly.
Through 11 games, Koepke has scored three goals and racked up four assists for seven points. Perhaps what has most impressed fans and media members alike, however, is his discipline and ability to be in the right place at the right time. Koepke has only committed two penalties, and has compiled a plus-10 rating. He even scored the Bruins’ first goal ever at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City when they played the Utah Hockey Club on Oct. 19.
First @NHLBruins goal at Utah belongs to Cole Koepke 💪 pic.twitter.com/2DllPKhDgw
— NESN (@NESN) October 20, 2024
The largest number of games Koepke has played in one NHL season is 17, and if he continues to play the way he is, he should be able to blow past that number and make a run at the Calder Memorial Trophy. Koepke will look to keep his goal scoring, assist tallying, and ability to be in the right spot going throughout the season in order to keep his spot in the lineup solidified.
First Star – David Pastrnak
Frankly, the first star should come as no surprise to anyone, as David Pastrnak has come out firing and ready to improve on his numbers from the past two seasons. Pastrnak scored goals in four of Boston’s first five games, and also picked up an assist in that stretch giving him an average of one point per game in the first five games. Since then, he has increased his goal total to six and his assist total to four.
While Pastrnak has a combined 223 points in his last two seasons and has a long way to get close to his totals for either one of those two campaigns, he is only four points short of his total after the first month of the 2023-24 season, so fans shouldn’t panic about Pastrnak’s comparitively-sluggish start.
While Pastrnak’s plus/minus currently sits at minus-five, that is also something that fans should not be concerned about either, as he has never finished a season with a negative rating. So far, Pastrnak’s individual numbers may be down, but it appears he is in on every play trying to contribute somehow.
While his numbers may not be where he wants them to be, Pastrnak has been the most consistent contributor for Boston so far and given his history, those numbers should only go up from here.
Tough Sledding Ahead for Bruins
The Bruins don’t exactly have an easy road ahead in November.
They play 14 games in 30 days, which includes two back-to-backs. One is at the beginning of the month on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 when they are on the road first to take on the Philadelphia Flyers, then the next day they are back at home to take on the Seattle Kraken. The other is at the end of the month when Boston takes on the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 26 and goes on the road on Nov. 27 to take on the New York Islanders.
The rest of the stretch includes road matchups with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings, and home matchups with the Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, another matchup with the Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Utah.
The Bruins’ next game is the aforementioned road matchup with the Flyers. Puck drop from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
