Why Bruins EXCEEDED Expectations This Year | Poke the Bear
In this episode of Poke The Bear, Conor reflects on the Bruins 2025-26 season, discusses the positives and negatives gained from this year, and sets the stage for a busy offseason.
The Bruins’ season ended last night following a 4-1 defeat to the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden, who won the series in six games. Conor breaks down where the team goes from here and what needs fixing in the offseason.
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We're going to look back in 5-7 years and remember that Hagens was held out of 2 playoff games so Steeves could play. OMFG! just nuts.
Come on . I know Pasta scored but he did not have a good series . He was not a difference maker and can we finally admit we will never win with him . Maybe it’s time to make a hockey trade and trade pasta for something that can help us . Pasta and Mcavoy struggle most of series and think it may be time to move on from
Them . Tired of pasta getting a pass because he scored . Live in Buffalo and the media is not impressed with him .
Also keep in mind , you can’t overreact. The Sabres are a very good team , top 5 in nhl team . You took them to 6 and could have won game 1 and 3 . Bruins needs to look at the leaders we have . Pasta, Lindholm, Zacha, and Mcavoy all struggled and you have to wonder are they good enough at their age , or is it time to move on and retool around Minten, hagens, khudys.
The Bruins will be alright. The majority thought they would be a basement team. They're weren't. They are a renovation project, and I think they're ahead of schedule. A couple of additions and a couple of prospects developing and next year should be ok. Buffalo was simply the better team. I give the B's a B this year. They did good.
Great season but this will be the same line-up for next season. They can't really trade for talent, stuck with some bad contracts.
Could be a lateral move, but trading McAvoy for Fox makes a lot of sense. Same age, same position, same pay, both with no-trade, yet have reasons that could benefit each in this move and could benefit each team as well. And most of all I'm tired of talking about yet another bad playoff series. It's been a theme ever since Chara left.
Pasta was a ghost through half this series. We need to pair him with a legit 1C and trade mcavoy for that center. Mcavoy has been a liability in the playoffs for a while now
GEEKIE WAS A NO SHOW
The man-to-man problem didn’t go away in the playoffs — it got worse.
Playoff hockey slows down. Cycles are longer. Teams spend more time in the defensive zone. That’s exactly when man-to-man coverage cracks the most — because tired defenders chasing assignments through a grinding cycle eventually lose their man. In the playoffs, those mistakes don’t get papered over by a hot goalie or a quick counter-attack goal.
Buffalo didn’t beat Boston with skill alone. They beat them by being patient, working the cycle, and finding the openings that man coverage creates. The slot kept opening up. The chances kept coming.
The whole season told the same story. When Boston protected the slot they were a top-5 defensive team. When they chased, they were bottom-5. They never fully committed to one or the other — and a disciplined Buffalo team exposed that inconsistency exactly when it mattered most.
The playoffs don’t lie. Zone defence wins in May. Man-to-man gets you eliminated.
Bruins till I die!