When the season started, not many people outside the city of Boston had the Bruins predicted to win the Eastern Conference playoffs. In fact, now that the dust has settled on the 2025-26 regular season, raise your hand if you had the Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Ottawa Senators as the postseason teams from the Atlantic Division?
Yeah, I didn't think so. Who had the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs out of the playoff picture? Not many, if any. However, injuries played a big part in both teams getting the spring off. With the Panthers done, there will be a new Stanley Cup champion this season.
Now that the playoffs are here, what grade would you give the Bruins this year? Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic nailed his grade for the Black and Gold this season.
Bruins get high grade for 2025-26 season
Shinzawa gave Boston an A+ for the season they had in Marco Sturm's first season behind the bench on Causeway Street. It's hard to argue with that grade.
"Even if the Bruins get swept in Round 1, 2025-26 was an excellent step in the organizational turnaround. Jeremy Swayman is back. David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy are elite. Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, and James Hagens could grow into long-term chain-pullers. “Lot of doubters,” coach Marco Sturm said. “Starting when we started training camp. We proved everyone wrong,” wrote Shinzawa.
This was a big turnaround season, but we have to be cautious going forward. If there is one thing that this season has taught us, it's that there is no guarantee they will make the postseason next season. Look at Florida and Toronto. A lot of things went right for the Black and Gold.
Despite making it this season, the offseason will need to be another successful one for Don Sweeney and the front office. However, before we get there, there is some business on the ice that needs to be taken care of.
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