Bruins Need Serious Attention Paid to the Defense & Power Play

Through four games thus far in 2024-25, the Boston Bruins have given their fans reasons for both excitement and concern. The team sits at a neutral 2-2-0 after two losses to the always-stubborn Florida Panthers and wins against the Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens. While the Bruins continued struggles against the Panthers are a cause for concern in their own right, two aspects of their game particularly stood out as needing improvement: their defense and their power play.

Bruins’ Defensive Sloppiness

Outside of a stellar defensive performance at home against the Kings, the Bruins have allowed four or more goals in each of their games thus far. Some of these goals have been ugly, giving their goalies almost zero chance to make a play. In their first game of the season, netminder Joonas Korpisalo struggled, however, he was not entirely to blame for the six goals the team allowed: he was facing shot after shot from point-blank range. 

The Bruins’ defensive efforts did not improve meaningfully in their second matchup with the Panthers. They were plagued by several sloppy errors that led to Florida having grade-A chances, including a careless turnover by Mason Lohrei in their back end which resulted directly in the Panthers’ first goal. While Jeremy Swayman was not his spectacular self during the game, the blame for the loss should not be on his shoulders: the Bruins simply did not do enough to help their goalie out defensively to give them a good chance to win the game, and they were fortunate that the contest was not blown wide open. 

Bruins’ Power Play Struggles

Another area of struggle for the Bruins thus far this season has been their power play. In all, they have netted 3.75 goals per game over these first four contests, a solid amount of offensive output. They have, however, struggled with the man advantage.