The Providence Bruins are 13-3-0 to start the season. They looked like they'd be one of the better AHL teams on paper when the roster began to take shape, and so far they've almost outperformed those expectations. The strength of their roster has been their forward depth, but the defense and goaltending have become the story.
Which leads us to the odd storyline of Providence's season. It is worth noting that the Baby Bruins' goaltenders have given them a chance to win all 16 games they've played this season, as the three losses have all been by shutout.
The three losses for Providence look like this:
- November 22, 2025 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 1 - Providence 0
- November 16, 2025 - Laval 2 - Providence 0 (1 goal was an empty-netter)
- November 2, 2025 - Hershey 2 - Providence 0 (1 goal was an empty-netter)
It's an incredible statistic that shows how good Simon Zajicek and Michael Dipietro have been this season. In each of the Bruins' losses, the goalies allowed only one goal, with two of the losses covering the two-goal spread just because of a late empty netter. Dipietro has been in the net for two of those losses, while Zajicek has taken the loss in the other.
Providence Bruins' start to the season features an odd storyline
A disappointing part of that storyline is that the Bruins have lost two of their last three games. The November 16 loss to Laval was the first game in which Matej Blumel and Riley Tufte had been sent to Boston, leaving Providence without three of its offensive threats: Blumel, Tufte, and Alex Steeves. Steeves and Blumel were also the top two goal-scorers in the entire AHL last season.
Providence has been struggling to score without those three players in the lineup, which tells us two things. 1. Those players are very important to the success of the AHL team, and the organization wouldn't hate to see the NHL group get healthy enough where those players can eventually return and make a Calder Cup run. 2. Matthew Poitras and Fabian Lysell's inability to carry the offense on their own is concerning.