When the dust settled on the 2024-25 Boston Bruins season, it was one of the more frustrating ones fans have witnessed in a while. Injuries, underperforming seasons from a number of players, and just an overall lack of talent saw them fall into a last-place tie with the Philadelphia Flyers in the basement of the Eastern Conference.
It seemed like whatever could go wrong, did. Defenseman Hampus Lindholm was lost for the season in November with an injury, then to compound matters, defenseman Charlie McAvoy was lost in February during the 4 Nations Faceoff with an injury. When it rained, it poured.
Going into the upcoming season, Lindholm and McAvoy are both healthy and eager to return to the ice with the Black and Gold, in what will be some new faces since they both laced up the skates for the Bruins. Gone are Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand, and Brandon Carlo, but according to McAvoy, that doesn't change the expectations for the 2025-26 campaign.
Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy believes the Black and Gold are a playoff team
McAvoy spoke with Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on the latest 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, and believes that the moves made this season, the chip on the shoulders of the returning players, are going to drive them to surprise a lot of people this winter.
"This is the first time in my career that we're going into a year where we're not a playoff team by a lot of people's metrics,'' said McAvoy. "We're a playoff team every day of the week in my mind. I think we have everything we need on this roster to be that. That's the goal, and our standards don't deviate regardless of what people think we may or may not be. We went out and got guys that are going to make us a tough team to play against. We're going to buy into that as best we can, and our team objective is going to be a tough out every time you play the Boston Bruins.''
That all sounds well and good, but we'll have to see if the bottom-six additions made over the summer are going to be good enough to reach that goal. Right now, it's hard to envision that happening, but that's why they play the games.