3 Takeaways From Bruins’ End-of-Season Press Conference

While it’s fair to say that the Bruins overachieved this season, it still didn’t make it any easier to accept the way the team performed during the postseason. The Bruins would ultimately lose the series in six games to a very talented Sabres team in what could only be described as a disappointing ending.

Neely Laments Bruins Home Playoff Performance

The Bruins losing the series itself wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but it was the fact that the Bruins could only muster one goal per home game in this series and five goals in their last four games that will be the lasting memory of this season. For a team that excelled on home ice all season long, it was shocking and embarrassing for everyone involved.

“Disappointing the way we played at home in the playoffs,” said Neely during the conference. “Can’t skate around that. Our home regular-season record was outstanding. For whatever reason, we couldn’t make it happen in the playoffs. That’s on us.”

Neely would note that there was a silver lining to the experience as a whole, but that the job was far from done in terms of roster building.

“We have to understand that a little bit better. But the experience that some of the players got that hadn’t had playoff hockey is invaluable. We’re grateful for that, but we do realize there is a lot more work to do.”

Sweeney would also offer his opinion on how the season ended, particularly regarding their home-ice performance.

“We left it on the table in terms of not taking advantage of the situation at home for certain,” said Sweeney. “And our players are perplexed or disappointed that they weren’t able to do that, and especially the way we played during the course of the season.”

With that in mind, the Bruins’ brass did make it clear that they’d need to add more talent to the roster.

Bruins Require Speed and Skill

The Bruins have made a conscious effort as of late to add players to their roster who make the team harder to play against. While this may be a great concept on paper, the reality is the Bruins also need more skill to win games. Skilled players do exist on the roster and more are coming in the coming years, but the team still needs to make a more concerted effort to acquire some speed and skill to insert into their lineup in the present to help compete against the NHL’s elite.

“Obviously, we got bounced in the first round. So yeah, we need more talent,” Neely said regarding the roster needing more talent. “We need more speed. That’s something that we have to try to acquire one way, shape, or form. But you look at the elite teams in the league, we’re not there. And like I said two years ago, when you strip it down like we did, you’re not going to be there in one season. So it’s going to take some time. But what we accomplished this year, give the guys credit. But early on, it’s building blocks. So we’ve still got work to do to improve this club, still.”

It’s unclear exactly how the Bruins are going to go about acquiring more skill and speed to add to their lineup, especially with some major albatross contracts seemingly hindering the roster, namely Elias Lindholm’s $7.75 million annual cap hit that runs through 2029-30 and Hampus Lindholm’s $6.5 million cap hit that runs through the same duration.

The latter Lindholm has been notably slower and has consequently made worse decisions since his knee injury last season, though a recently disclosed small fracture in his foot could have also played a role. The Bruins will hope that Hampus can bounce back, but the likelihood of Elias being a crucial piece on this roster, especially at his cap hit, seems unlikely at best.

The Bruins could be a team active in the restricted free agent market and the trade market this offseason, especially with so much extra draft capital in their asset cupboard. It’ll be interesting to see how they approach things.

One important note from the press conference was that Neely noted Fraser Minten and James Hagens had the right skillset to be No. 1 centers, but that right now the organization is aware they don’t have a clear No. 1.

“We all in this room recognize we don’t have a true No. 1 C. That’s something that we want to try to rectify, whether it’s this offseason or those guys growing into”

Bruins Will Name a Captain

The Bruins have played without a captain since trading away Brad Marchand at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. Though head coach Marco Sturm didn’t seem to mind not having a captain for the entire season, things will change next season with a decision on who wears the “C” being made this offseason.

“I think, obviously, we would love to name a captain, but we’ve had some great captains here, so one of the things that we want to do is make sure we’re picking the right guy, and Marco is going to be a big part of that,” Neely said. “So, having a new coach come in and implementing a new system, getting to know the players, I think it only made sense to see how the season played out. We’ve already started discussions about that, for sure, and we’re going to have plenty more in this offseason.”

Though the Bruins didn’t actually have a player wear the “C” on their jersey this season, it was pretty clear that there was a leadership-by-committee approach in the locker room and on the bench all season long. The obvious names that were involved were David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, though Nikita Zadorov also felt like a natural leader on the team as well. Even with a player being formally named captain this offseason, that shared leadership likely won’t change too drastically.

“Leadership is a collective process, and I think we proved this year that those guys took ownership of it,” said Sweeney. “We grew, they grew, and now you’re going to eventually get to the point where you feel comfortable that we are going to have another captain here.”

When the dust settles on this offseason, the Bruins could once again look like a drastically different team heading into next season. It’s never easy to make sweeping changes to a roster, but some of the changes could be noticed even in an increased role for some of the players already on the team. These players include Minten, Hagens and even Marat Khusnutdinov, all of whom could be important pieces for the Bruins in the long term.