The new year of 2025 is two days away and the 2024-25 season is rapidly approaching the halfway point. The Boston Bruins are 38 games in and currently sit at a 20-14-4 record. This is good for third place in the Atlantic Division, trailing the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning.
It hasn’t necessarily been the season many were expecting. Head coach Jim Montgomery was fired and replaced by Joe Sacco. The vast majority of the roster struggled through the first few weeks of the season, leading to some surprising names atop the team leaderboards.
Related: 3 Bruins Predictions for First Half of 2024-25 Season
With the up-and-down performance from the team so far, the 2024-25 season hasn’t necessarily gone as many predicted, myself included. With the first half of the season in the books, it’s a good time to take a look back at the predictions I made for the first half of the season back in September.
1. Brandon Carlo Will Be on Pace for a Career Year in Points
Despite having high hopes coming into the season, the blue line hasn’t been the dominating force some thought it could be. They’ve improved in recent weeks under Sacco, but it was a rough start for pretty much everyone and then got worse with the loss of their top performer, Hampus Lindholm, at the beginning of November.
It’s pretty safe to say at this point that, unless he goes on an absolute tear in the second half of the season, Brandon Carlo will not set a career-high in points in 2024-25. He currently has one goal and five points in 38 games. This puts him on pace for 10 points in 82 games, well below his career-high of 19 back in 2019-20.
Carlo is still pretty solid in his own zone, but after playing some of the best offense of his career at the end of last season and in the 2024 playoffs, there was hope that it could translate to increased offense in 2024-25. That has not come to fruition. But, at least, he is looking more and more like the solid and responsible stay-at-home defenseman he’s been known for throughout his nine-season career.
2. Charlie Coyle Top 3 in Points
Like the majority of the roster, Charlie Coyle struggled tremendously in the first month of the season. He had only one point – a goal – through the first 12 games of the season, and while he has turned it around, he is currently well outside the top three on the Bruins in points.
In total, Coyle has 13 points in 38 games this season. He’s ninth on the team, trailing David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Justin Brazeau, Mason Lohrei, and Morgan Geekie. It is not the follow-up anyone would have wanted for him after having 25 goals and 60 points in 82 games last season.
It is still very possible for Coyle to climb back up the points chart and finish the season in third again. Lindholm, who is currently sitting in third, has 19 points on the season, only five more than Coyle. Third place through eleventh place on the roster are only separated by eight points, with Pastrnak and Marchand clearly in a category of their own at the top.
But as for Coyle being in third place for the first half of the season, well, that is another prediction that didn’t come to fruition.
3. A Rookie Will Appear in the Majority of Games
It was obviously too ambitious to think that after playing three rookies in 30-plus games last season, general manager Don Sweeney would give a rookie a legitimate shot in 2024-25 as well. Despite high hopes going into the season for guys like Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov, neither made the roster out of training camp.
Merkulov did get three games in November, where he registered one assist and played pretty well, and Lysell finally made his NHL debut on Nov. 28 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He played 11:32, was a plus-one, and while he didn’t get an assist, he was an instrumental part of the play leading to Justin Brazeau’s goal in the first period. Not a bad debut for sure. But obviously, neither guy has appeared in a majority of the games so far this season.
Additionally, second-year player Matthew Poitras was sent back down to the American Hockey League (AHL) to play with the Providence Bruins. It was a bit of a head-scratching decision at the time, as he was playing well. Still, he is making the most of his time in Providence with 16 points in 18 games and many are anxiously awaiting his return to Boston.
The Bruins’ pipeline continues to be a subject of scrutiny with this team. With no rookies playing significant time this season, and as the only NHL team with no prospects currently playing in the 2025 World Junior Championship, Sweeney’s ability to draft and develop talent remains in question. The saving grace in 2024-25 for young guys with the team continues to be second-year player Mason Lohrei, the team’s 2020 second-round pick, who is looking more and more comfortable in the NHL in his first full season in Boston.
First Half of 2024-25 Season Grade
Overall, the Bruins have been pretty average in 2024-25. They’re clinging to a playoff spot, but this is not a team that looks like they’ll be a real contender for the Stanley Cup. Things can change, of course, as there is still half a season to go and the team is certainly playing better in recent weeks, but this is a “C” team, maybe a “B-minus” if you want to give more recency bias and current momentum to the grade.
Related: Charlie Coyle Adds Spark to Bruins’ Top-Six
The team needs to improve on all sides of the puck: offense, defense, goaltending, and special teams. They were able to get some wins in December, though most of them came against teams they were supposed to beat when comparing records. But hopefully, that builds up some confidence and gives them momentum to carry into 2025 and the second half of the season.
The Bruins will finish out the 2024 calendar year with a New Year’s Eve game against the Washington Capitals, who they last played on Dec. 23 in arguably their best performance of the season. They follow that up with a game against the struggling New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who currently top the Atlantic Division.
