The BRUINS’ HIDDEN TRUTH! 🤯 Why The 2025 Playoff Miss Was NO Accident!

The BRUINS’ HIDDEN TRUTH! 🤯 Why The 2025 Playoff Miss Was NO Accident!

Why did the Bruins suck this past year? Why did the Bruins miss the playoffs for the first time in nine years? Why did they regress so heavily? How have they fallen from two years ago being the best regular season team in NHL history to being where they are now, a team that was picking inside the top 10 this year and probably should be thinking about doing the same thing for next year. How did we get here? I get this question all the time. I hear it. And mainly when looking at 2024 25 the answer I hear the most is well come on they got hurt Lindholm was out for most of the year Elias Lindholm was battling something. Charlie Makavoy wasn’t on your team for the last two months of the season. They weren’t in a playoff picture at the for nations break which is when Charlie Makavoy got hurt and they were farther out of the picture by the time the season ended. Obviously, I hate that. I hate Bruins fans just saying, “Oh, well, that’s the problem. They were just hurt.” There’s some analysts saying that, too. Next year, when they get these guys back, they’ll be just fine. Although, they failed to mention that Hampus Lindholm didn’t really have a good 23 24 season. Kind of took a step back. And Charlie Makavoy has not been the same player the last year and a half that that he was the years before that or that we projected him to be at this point in his career. That’s not saying Charlie Makavoy is bad. I still really like him. But let’s be honest with ourselves. Has he made the jump that you thought he was going to make by age 27 here? 28? Hasn’t for me. I thought by this point he was going to be a Norris trophy kind of guy. He was top five in the Norris voting back-to-back years in 2021 and 22. And his buddy, the guy he was compared to all the time, Adam Fox, goes out and wins one. And where’s Charlie Makavoy? Good enough. Good enough. Number one defenseman. Not a number one defenseman on a Stanley Cup contender. And then lo and behold, there we are. So when people say it’s just the injuries that got the Bruins to where they were in 2024 25, they didn’t watch this team. It goes much deeper than that. You know why they weren’t very good in 2024 25? You want the real reason? Part of it was because Jeremy Swayman brings a whole lot of drama to this locker room right before the season. Days before the season, he finally signs a contract. Remember the captain Brad Marshand? Remember when he played for the Bruins? Yeah. He was saying, “I don’t talk about contract stuff in the media. We don’t really do that around here.” Clear veiled shot at Jeremy Swayman. Guy doesn’t have a preseason, goes in, has a career worst year when he’s finally making some money, sets the market, and then sucks as a huge drop off. Is one of the genuinely one of the worst starting goalies in the entire NHL. So, was it because they were injured or because a position that they value more than most teams in the league had a huge drop off in 24-25? Or maybe, just maybe, it was because they couldn’t put the puck in the net. Remember that? 29th in the league in goal scoring, 29th in power play percentage. Oh, but they were second in fights. So, you want to tell me they didn’t make the postseason because they were injured when they’re sitting there in 29th place in goal scoring, in power play? Oh, yeah. I bet I bet that’s cuz they were injured because they had all these elite offensive players that were just injured this past year. It had nothing to do with the fact that this front office does not know how to replace any kind of talent that they had. Let’s go back to the real reason looking back at a 23-24 team which absolutely overachieved by finishing second in the division by winning a playoff round even though it was the lease. That was an overachievement in 2023 24. And you look at the guys that had career years that year. Charlie Coyle 60 points. Where did that come from? 60 points on 25 goals completely out of nowhere. You thought, huh, probably never going to get that again. And you didn’t. Pavle Zaka 59 points. He’s down to 47 this year. Played for your team the whole season. Morgan Geeki is the only one that took a step up. But I look at the guys who weren’t even who aren’t even here anymore. Oh, I’ll mention Trent Frederick as well. He’ll never ever ever have a 22 goal season again or excuse me, an 18 goal season, 40-point season. He’s not going to do that. Not going to do that again after what we saw last year. But let’s look at the guys who didn’t make the trip from 23-24 to 24-25. Jake De Brusk, Danton Heinen, James Van Remsteike, Kevin Shatenkirk. All guys that I think an average GM to above average GM in this league can replace the production for maybe everyone but De Brusk. De Brusk was 40 points. Danton Heinen career journeyman career year 36 points. James Van Remsteike 38 points. Kevin Shatenkirk 24 points. Those were crucial depth guys on your team that were sometimes even healthy scratches. The Bruins didn’t replace any of that. Any any of it. Like think of that. De Brusk, Heinen, Van Remdsteike. They combined for what? 38 plus 36 is 74 plus 40. That’s 114 points that they just didn’t replace. They replaced it with Elias Lindholm who had 47. and fill in the blank. They replaced it with Mattie Patra, with Johnny Beecher, with Justin Brazo for half the season for with Marat Husnadino. They didn’t replace that production at all. Here’s where I get really pissed off with Don Sweeney and all those people who are still defending Don Sweeney after all these years. It’s okay if you’re a good team taking a stance and saying, “You know what, Jake De Brusk, you can walk. We’re not giving you a seven-year deal if you can’t produce 50 points or more for us in any given season.” I’m okay with that. But then you’ve got to replace him, and they didn’t do it. And they didn’t do it this off season either. Which also leads us to the guys that they did bring in. Finally, for the first time in about nine years, the last time they missed the playoffs before this year, Don Sweeny’s got some money to work with in free agency. There’s been two times in his tenure with the Bruins that he’s really had enough money that he could cook out on the free agent market. You’ll remember 2015. It was going into the 1516 season and it was Jimmy Hayes, David Bakus, and Matt Bleski, Zack Ronaldo. That piece of Those are the guys that Don Sweeney went out and got that year. This time around, he’s got money again. He’s going to be bold. He’s going to put his ball sack right out on the table, and he’s going to let Jake De Brusk walk. How does he respond? Elias Lindholm seven-year deal for almost $8 million a year and Nikita Zador off on a five-year deal. Nikita Zador off who’s on who’s on team number what six or seven of his career as he just turns 30. Yeah. Fiveyear deal. Here’s where it’ll stick. Here’s where he will really stick. This is like the mentality that that that Don Sweeney has that just doesn’t add up. You know, here’s where he’ll be a real force for us. And I kind of like Sidorov. I hope he is a force for the Bruins in in the future. But to say he had a good first year would be lying. Elias Lindholm, same thing. Everyone else saw the writing on the wall. Calgary saw it. In Calgary, Elias Lindholm played alongside Johnny Gdro and Matthew Kachchuck. And that’s when he became a point of game player. And when those guys were gone, his numbers dipped and Calgary was willing to trade him at the trade deadline. And then Vancouver, who got him, who just spent capital on him, was willing to let him walk. And Don Sweeney says, “No, you know what? He’s going to do well with us. We can’t put two superstars next to him. We could put one, and he didn’t even play well with him, and that’s David Post. But we’re going to be the ones that that figure this out. Again, not the case. David Bakus all the way back 10 years ago, an icon with the Blues. He was the team captain. And nobody in the room thought, “Huh, why are they letting him walk? He’s kind of the face of their franchise. Why are they letting him walk? And why, when he’s on the wrong side of 30, are we going to sign him to a five-year deal and expect that to work out?” That’s That’s where I get pissed off with Don Sweeney. He makes good trades sometimes. The trade deadline, I’ll give him that. But he doesn’t really draft well. He doesn’t spend money well. You know, he doesn’t get good free agents on good deals. He doesn’t fleece anybody ever. And I think he can’t read the writing on the wall. And he doesn’t replace production, man. Doesn’t replace it. Again, if you want to let Tory Crew go, fine. They didn’t really replace him, but they had a good enough team at the time that it was okay. But then when you’re not as good, when you’re a team that just wins one playoff round and you let a 40 point scorer go and you can’t replace him, like that’s that’s a big time that’s that’s really bad. That’s a really bad look on a general manager. And it’s I I know I’ve been killing Don Sweeney for most of this summer, but I think most of you guys would agree with me on it. And I just hate I I keep seeing it pop up that, oh, now that the Bruins are healthy, they they’ll be much better. I just don’t see that vision. I wish I did. It would it would make me happier, but I don’t see that vision. The reason why the Bruins didn’t make the playoffs this year is because they have a front office with terrible asset management and they didn’t replace any of the fluke production that they got the year before. Looking back on it, should the 23-24 Bruins have even won a playoff series and finished second in the in the really good Atlantic Division? No, they shouldn’t have. overachieved and they let a couple of Jags walk and a couple of nice players walk and they couldn’t replace it which is amazing. Like we’re not talking about like Hall of Fame players here, okay? We’re talking about Jake the Brusk, Danton Heinen, Kevin Shatenkirk, James Van Reamsteike, Matt Grizzlick, guys who in a vacuum, like that’s okay to let them go, but most teams let those guys go because they can bring somebody in. Like, how do you not replace those points? It should be pretty easy. You let all those guys go who you were paying nothing, right? I mean, we talk about the 114 points, right? Is that what I just laid out? Heinen, De Brusk, JVR, Kevin Shatenkirk. You weren’t paying those guys anything. They didn’t even they they didn’t come close to making a combined $7.75 million in the 2324 season when they gave you 114 points. And then you went out and spent that same money, 7.75 million on this year for a guy who gave you a third of those points. It’s like the opposite of Moneyball. It makes no sense. That’s where I get lost with Don Sweeney. You know, the people will say, “Ah, you know, this has to come every once in a while. You know, we had it so good for so long.” But the reason why it came to this was because they couldn’t replace Jake De Brusk. That’s where you lose me. That’s where you lose me. You know, it it’s they knew the writing on the wall was coming for years and no one was thinking they should have been a Stanley Cup contender last year. Nobody in their right mind was thinking that. But there’s no reason like with the outlook going into last offseason that they should have been a worse team than Ottawa. In fact, they probably shouldn’t have been a worse team than Montreal who’s going to blow them out of the water the next couple of seasons. So that’s where you lose me. That’s why that is why the Bruins didn’t make the playoffs this past year. It wasn’t because Hampus Lindholm was hurt. It wasn’t because Charlie Makavoy was hurt. It was because you had nobody you could put the puck in the goddamn net. Didn’t go out and get anybody to do that and you had to fire because you did that to yourself. Now here’s where Cam can become positive here. How can they make the playoffs in 202526? It’s tall order as evidenced by the fact that I did a segment on the show yesterday about why they should tank for Gavin McKenna. Okay, it’s a tall order. You have you need a lot to go right for the Bruins to make the postseason this year. First things first, you’re in one of the toughest divisions in hockey. Okay, in order for the Bruins to make the playoffs this year, you have got to be better than either Ottawa, Montreal, or even Detroit. And I don’t think the Bruins are on that plane right now. I really don’t. I think the Bruins are much closer to the team that they ended the season with than the one that they had that were in a playoff spot in January last year. Like, they were horrible. god awful after the trade deadline after they cleaned house that that’s the team that you’re rolling in with plus Shan Carali and Tanner Jano like you’re really not getting huge reinforcements here’s how they can get into the postseason though they would need a lot of things to go right they would need Charlie Makavoy and His Lindome to come back and find their form that they were in two years ago almost three seasons ago in the 2022 23 season when Hampus Lindholm probably should have been a Norris finalist and Charlie Makavoy was not that far off coming off two top five uh Norris trophy finishes in 21 and 22. They need those guys to come back and hit the ground running right away. They need Charlie Makavoy to be something he hasn’t been been in a couple of years. They need him to look like the Charlie Makavoy that we saw in the four nations when he was the best player on the ice in that US Canada game round one. That’s what they need from him. They need Hampus Lindholm to be a legit two-way top 15 20 defenseman again, which he’s only had for a glimpse of his career. They need Elias Lindholm to be at least a 60point guy, which he hasn’t really been outside of the couple of years where he was in the 75 80 point range with two terrific wingers on either side of him. all stars, future hall of famer, one of the great players of his generation, unfortunately cut down too soon in Johnny Gdro. You need him to be closer to that than he was to this. That’s a big ask for Eliza Lindholm when he wasn’t playing with those guys. You know what he’s like? He’s kind of like this Elish Lindholm. So, you need that. You need Jeremy Swayman to get back to allstar form. And you need him to save some games for you. You need some Swayman points throughout this season. And you need somebody in the middle six to become a 25 goal scorer. I don’t who is that Matthew Potra? Tanner Jano is never going to be that. Fraser Mitten, Casey Middlestad, Pavl Zaka. I don’t know that you have that guy. But if those things go right and Ottawa kind of regresses to what they were the year before last and Montreal has some growing pains, then maybe you got a shot. Maybe. But don’t give me the excuse that the Bruins were injured. They were heading down this path whether they were injured or not. And I’m gonna I’ll be straight up with it. If Hampus Lindholm and Charlie Makavoy were on this team, I don’t know that they would have made the playoffs anyway. I think they still had a humongous problem in goal scoring. So, they’re going to try to win a lot of games two to one this year, but I don’t know how many times they’re going to get to two goals. The other thing about it is if they did have those guys, they wouldn’t have fire sailed at the trade deadline, which I think would have been worse for the Bruins in the long haul than what they actually did. So, let me know what you think in the comments section below. What’s the real reason why the Bruins did not make the playoffs in 2025? And can they make it in 2026? Let me know in the comments section below. Be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel. We’re bringing you Bruins content every single weekday live on YouTube and then available wherever you get your podcast as well. Check out the other videos on YouTube talking Bruins, talking everything else going on in the world of Boston sports. I’m your host Cam Stewart. Zack Burke keeps us on the air five days a

The information from the search results is consistent and provides strong evidence to debunk the “just injuries” narrative for the Bruins’ 2024-2025 playoff miss.

Key points to highlight:

Yes, injuries were a factor: Hampus Lindholm (season-ending fractured patella), Charlie McAvoy (AC joint injury/infection), Brad Marchand (offseason surgeries impacting start), David Pastrnak (injuries affecting training), Elias Lindholm (back injury impacting start).

But, the stats prove deeper issues:

Offensive Production: 29th in the NHL at 2.62 (or 2.71) goals per game (historically bad for them).

Power Play: 29th in the league at 15.1% (also historically bad).

Goaltending Struggles: Jeremy Swayman’s significant regression (3.11 GAA, .892 SV%) after his big contract, partly due to missing training camp.

Underperforming Acquisitions: Elias Lindholm (47 points) had a “rough first season,” “struggled in Boston,” and was “well off his career best” despite a large contract, partly due to his own early-season injury.

Roster Construction Flaws: Trading away goal-scorers like Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, James van Riemsdyk for fewer goals from new acquisitions (Zadorov, Lindholm). General Manager Don Sweeney acknowledging the team was not “primed for a playoff run” and selling at the deadline.

Coaching Change/Slow Start: Jim Montgomery fired early in the season after an 8-9-3 start, leaving the team in a hole.

Overall Disfunction: One article explicitly states, “When you combine the faulty roster construction, uncharacteristically public and hostile contract negotiations, pre-training camp injuries to new players, and a ‘one foot out the door’ head coach, the Bruins were doomed before they even stepped foot on the ice.”

This comprehensive set of reasons goes far beyond “just injuries.”

Here’s an enticing YouTube video title and description:

Title: MYTH BUSTED! 🚨 The REAL Reason The Bruins Missed The Playoffs (It Wasn’t Injuries!)

Description:
The Boston Bruins’ shocking 2024-25 playoff miss sent the fanbase into a frenzy, with many pointing fingers at a string of tough injuries. But what if that’s only part of the story – or worse, a convenient excuse? In this deep-dive investigation, we’re debunking the “injury curse” theory and revealing the TRUE underlying reasons the Black & Gold crashed out of contention!

We’re going beyond the infirmary report to expose the brutal statistical reality: The Bruins plummeted to 29th in the NHL in goals scored and sported a dismal 15.1% power play – numbers unheard of for a contender! We’ll break down Jeremy Swayman’s surprising struggles post-contract, the underperformance of high-profile acquisitions like Elias Lindholm, and the critical roster construction errors that left the team with gaping holes.

This wasn’t just bad luck; it was a perfect storm of strategic missteps, an early coaching change, and a fundamental lack of offensive depth that doomed the season before injuries even became the main narrative. Get ready for a statistical breakdown that proves the Bruins’ problems ran far deeper than who was sidelined. The truth is more shocking than you think!

#BostonBruins #NHLDebate #BruinsAnalysis #NHLStats #PlayoffMiss #HockeyAnalytics #Bruins #TruthRevealed #NoExcuses #RealReason

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