December has not been a great month for the Boston Bruins. They are currently on a five-game losing streak having lost to the Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, and Buffalo Sabres in recent weeks. Outside of their shootout loss to the Canucks, these have not been particularly close games either.
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With this losing streak, the Bruins have dropped to seventh in the Atlantic Division. Now, the division is tight and they are only six points back from the first place Detroit Red Wings, but if they are going to start winning again and climb back up in the standings, there are a couple of areas that need to improve.
Goaltending and Defense
While technically these are two separate issues plaguing the team, they are pretty tied together, so they’ll be discussed together. The Bruins have given up 23 goals in regulation during this five-game losing streak. It’s hard to win games when giving up four, five, and six goals a game. While Jeremy Swayman has bounced back this season and has largely looked good in 2025-26, his numbers have dipped during this recent stretch. But the larger issues have been with the overall defensive play of the team and the play of backup Joonas Korpisalo.
Amongst all 32 NHL teams, the Bruins rank near or at the bottom for shot attempts allowed, shots on net allowed, scoring chances allowed, and high-danger chances allowed, and this has all been on full display during this five-game losing streak. The stats and eye test both align, Boston’s defense is leaving its goaltenders out to dry. They’ve given up way too many breakaway opportunities, struggled to make clears out of their own zone, and are making bad turnovers. As mentioned, Swayman’s stats are not the most eye popping, but looking at the underlying numbers, it becomes apparent that he has been bailing out a struggling blue line throughout the season so far.
On the flip side, while the defense hasn’t been great or done him many favors, the Bruins also have concerning issues with the play of Korpisalo in net. He’s on pace for a below .900 save percentage for the third season in a row, and has had clear moments where he simply could not make the save, even with the defense playing well. This has been particularly on display during the current losing streak. He’s struggled to make saves when there is traffic out in front, as seen in their loss to the Sabres. Additionally, he was pulled from their game against Ottawa when he allowed five goals on 17 shots and simply did not look as sharp as he should.
What can they do to turn this around? The first is obviously cleaning up the defensive mistakes and turnovers, and emphasizing better play in their own zone. This is on head coach Marco Sturm and his staff to get his team back into shape as he’s facing increasing scrutiny for the team’s lack of consistency.
Addressing the goaltending issues is a little bit more complicated. The front office and coaching team certainly seems to have lost trust in Korpisalo as they’ve been playing Swayman more and more. Giving their number one goaltender more playing time with an improved defense will go a long way to get more wins under their belt. But there is a question about when and if it is time to give Michael DiPietro, who is having an excellent season playing for the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL), a chance at backup when he’s recovered from injury. The two starts Korpisalo has had during this five-game losing streak have not been good and are not helping in his desire for more playing time.
Bruins Need (Controlled) Fire on the Ice
While things certainly got heated during the Bruins’ matchup with the Canadiens, overall, the Bruins have looked flat during this losing streak. They’ve only scored 10 goals in the last five games, less than half of the 23 they’ve allowed opponents. They’ve looked like the worst team throughout most of these matchups and it is showing on the stats sheet.
Something needs to change with the Bruins. They’re slowly but surely getting healthy again. Viktor Arvidsson returned to the lineup in their game against Montreal. David Pastrnak returned during their road trip prior to the losing streak. Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, and Charlie McAvoy, all major roster pieces who have missed games this season, are healthy and playing.
Sturm clearly knows that changes need to be made and is trying to mix things up, bringing out new lines at practice following the loss to the Sabres. He’s testing Pastrnak on a line with the two youngest forwards, Marat Khusnutdinov and Fraser Minten, and moved up Alex Steeves to play with Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm again.
The Bruins need more life and fire again on the ice without drifting into the reckless, dumb penalty territory. The lineup changes are a good place to start trying to find that. If not, it’s back to the drawing board and hoping that someone or something will give this team a spark again.
Olympic Break Approaching
Everyone knows there is an issue. The players have talked about it, Sturm has talked about it, something has to give and improvements have to be made in all areas to get back in the win column. The team needs to improve their defense, make some decisions about their goaltending rotation, and bring some fire to their play again. They need to make these changes sooner rather than later with the Olympic pause drawing closer and closer.
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The Bruins have 18 games between now and Feb. 4 when they then have a three week break while NHL players participate in the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. For this 18-game stretch, the goal has to be for the Bruins to get themselves back into a playoff spot and try to create some separation between them and other teams in the standings. They’ve shown that they are capable of winning, now it just has to come back together again.
