After six-plus grueling months, the Boston Bruins' 2024-25 season ended on Tuesday night at the TD Garden against the New Jersey Devils. It couldn’t have come quickly enough, considering the season the Black and Gold had filled with frustration and disappointment.
Who is to blame for the failures of this season? Well, you can hand blame out all around, but if there is an area where the most blame needs to be pointed, it’s with the front office. That doesn’t mean the players or the coaching staff get off scot-free. Things never seemed right from the beginning with this group, which allowed four first-period goals in the season opener against the Florida Panthers, and things never really changed for the better from there.
Sure, after firing Jim Montgomery and naming Joe Sacco interim coach, the Bruins played well and even better, but even after a coaching change, the team playing well only has a short shelf life, and that was evident with Boston. After playing well from mid-November following the coaching change until New Year’s, they stumbled into the 4 Nations Face-Off break and came out of it the same way, which forced general manager Don Sweeney to be a seller at the trade deadline rather than buying. Now that the painful 82-game gauntlet is over, there is plenty of blame to go around.
Boston Bruins blame for the disappointing 2024-25 season is spread throughout the organization
For as much as you would like to blame a few people or instances of where things might have gone wrong, there is too much blame throughout the organization. It started last summer in free agency when Sweeney signed center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov to contracts that look brutal after one season. It doesn’t stop there.
How about the players? Jeremy Swayman’s contract negotiations last summer were a major distraction, and he missed all of training camp. He agreed to a deal two days before the season opener in South Florida, but he played nowhere like an $8.25 million player this season. You can chalk it up to missing training camp, something Montgomery referenced before being shown the door by the front office as a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in February.
Aside from Elias Lindholm and Zadorov, there were many struggling seasons throughout the roster and lineup. Injuries can’t be forecasted during a season, but losing Hampus Lindholm back in November didn’t help the defense. Charlie McAvoy getting hurt and losing the rest of the season during the 4 Nations Face-Off was something that wasn’t avoidable. Then there was Mark Kastelic being lost in March during their West Coast trip. He isn’t going to provide much offense, but he’s a grinder on the fourth line who is tough to play against.
In the end, it starts with the front office. They handed Montgomery and Sacco a roster that wasn’t anywhere near as close to being talented as the ones in previous seasons. Losing Jake DeBrusk’s production, Linus Ullmark between the pipes through a trade, and missing the boat on contracts with Elias Lindholm and Zadorov proved to be costly.
Sweeney did the right thing in being a seller at the deadline, shipping out Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, and Brad Marchand with the returns for the first two being the best in terms of future assets in prospects.
As far as prospects go, defenseman Mason Lohrei went through growing pains this season on the backend, but it will pay off in the future. Matthew Poitras had another season where he was up-and-down but is playing well for the Providence Bruins as they head into the Calder Cup Playoffs in the American Hockey League (AHL) in the coming weeks. Fraser Minten acquired from the Maple Leafs looks like he rounding into a full-time NHL player, while Fabian Lysell has certainly taken a step forward the last month in terms of pushing for a roster spot next season.
All of that will be determined by the off-season the front office has. Sweeney will have to hire another coach after firing two Jack Adams Award winners in his last two bench bosses, and then finding the right pieces for next season to get his club back into the postseason is easier said than done. Then there’s the lottery draft pick they’ll have. Do we trust Sweeney in making a potential franchise-altering pick? So many questions with very few answers that need to be correct when the team gathers at Warrior Ice Arena next September for training camp. Decisions, decisions, decisions.