Will the Bruins improve on last season?

It’s still early, but there’s plenty of optimism surrounding the team in New England.

The Boston Bruins are coming off one of their worst seasons in recent memory, finishing below .500 for the first time since the 2006-07 season, leading to a last-place finish in the Atlantic Division and 15th in the Eastern Conference.

There were multiple factors that led to the sluggish performance: Jeremy Swayman’s holdout, injuries, and overall poor effort. However, with a fresh slate, maybe Boston can improve and be in the playoff conversation.

There’s certainly some elevated hopes around the team after beating the Washington Capitals, the team that finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference last year, on the opening night of the Bruins’ regular season.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss whether the Bruins are going to have a bounce-back season.

Tyler Yaremchuk: On a scale of 1-to-10, the Boston Bruins, coming off an opening night win, actually find a way to improve their point total from last year.

Carter Hutton: Nine. I just don’t see the sustainability in this lineup. Yes, I like [David] Pastrnak. Yes, I like [Charlie] McAvoy. They have some good pieces, but I just think depth-wise, you know, unless Jeremy Swayman can perform like that on a consistent basis…I do like their goaltending. I think Swayman coming into camp now, putting everything behind him with the holdout from last year in the past and having a better start to push for that Olympic team and be a difference-maker. … I just think in a star-studded Atlantic Division who you could make the argument that is going to be the best in hockey, it’s really going to be hard for them to make up a lot of ground in this division.

Tyler: They’re not a playoff team. They’re not going from 76 to 92 or whatever it would take to get there, but I just look at that blue line. The forward group stinks. It’s bad. There’s no depth there.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode…