The Boston Bruins are a good team. The fact that they entered Saturday with the sixth-best record in the NHL is a testament to that.
They still have a ways to go to be a great team. The fact that they are now 0-4-0 against the NHL's top five teams is a testament to that.
The two most recent losses to the NHL's best have come in the last three days – Thursday's 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, and now Saturday's 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
It's not just that the Bruins haven't been able to beat the NHL's elite; it's that they haven't even kept most of these games close. The only one of those four losses against a top-five team that they kept within a goal was a 2-1 loss at Carolina on Oct. 27. And even in that game, they got outshot 30-16 and were pretty thoroughly dominated for long stretches of it.
In the other three games, including now two losses to Minnesota, the Bruins have been outscored 15-5.
On Saturday, they fell behind 6:54 into the game when Ryan Hartman scored seconds after a Wild power play ended. The Bruins kept it a one-goal game for the rest of the first period, but then things quickly fell apart early in the second.
Quinn Hughes made it 2-0 just under a minute in with a wrist shot from the point that beat Jeremy Swayman through traffic during a 4-on-4 stretch. Just 1:07 later, Blake Coleman pushed the Minnesota lead to 3-0 with another shot from the point that hit a Bruin in front and deflected in.
The Bruins finally got on the board with a Fraser Minten power-play tally midway through the second, but then they conceded another goal just 1:15 later when they botched their own chance off the rush, allowing the Wild to turn right back up ice with a 3-on-2 and another goal for Hartman.
It was a similar story early in the third period. David Pastrnak cut it to 4-2 with still 15:15 remaining in the game, but a minute and a half later, Frederic Brunet got caught on a bad pinch and Danila Yurov finished off yet another odd-man rush the other way.
The Bruins are just making too many mistakes against the NHL's most talented teams. Another problem, especially in these last two games, is that they've been on the wrong side of the goaltending battle.
Whether it's been Swayman or Michael DiPietro in net, the Bruins have had the goalie advantage over the vast majority of their opponents this season. In the last two games, however, they've run into Montreal's Jacob Fowler and Minnesota's Jesper Wallstedt, who would probably be the top two goalies in Vezina Trophy voting at the moment.
Even if Swayman were at his best, those two goalie matchups might just end up even. Swayman hasn't been at his best these last two games, though. In fact, they've been arguably his two worst games of the season.
Just like Thursday, there was plenty of blame to go around, as outlined above. But Swayman also just wasn't as sharp as he's been most of the season. On the first goal Saturday, he couldn't quite track where the puck was behind his net, and wound up deep in his crease for Hartman's shot, giving the Wild center more room to pick a corner without having the angle cut down.
After the game, a couple Bruins players stressed that these last two games are nothing worth panicking over.
"No," Charlie McAvoy said when asked if there's any frustration or concern. "I think you know just being around a little bit, you just take it a day at a time in this league, and that's it. Obviously, you're not going to have your best every single night. And it's unfortunate that the last two, against quality opponents, I don't think we had enough good. There was good, but just not enough of it, not enough finish. We'll go back and learn from it. It's a long season, so I don't think there's any reason to be discouraged. We've put ourselves in a really good spot so far. There's always going to be games like these in seasons. You learn from it and then you flush it."
Charlie McAvoy after the Bruins got outscored 11-4 in back-to-back losses to Montreal and Minnesota:“It's a long season, so I don't think there's any reason to be discouraged. We've put ourselves in a really good spot so far. There's always going to be games like these in seasons. You learn from it and then you flush it.”
— WEEI (@WEEI) November 15, 2026
But Bruins coach Marco Sturm also acknowledged the reality that the Bruins just aren't on the same level as a team like Minnesota yet.
"They do everything, it seems like they do it right," Sturm said of the Wild. "They're a Cup contender for a reason, and they showed us how you have to play a man's game. So, it was good to see for us. I think those are the teams now. We want to be one of them, right? And we're just not there yet. But I think there's a lot of things I truly believe are going to help us moving forward, by just playing against teams like that."
Marco Sturm after the Bruins’ 6-2 loss to the Wild:“They're a Cup contender for a reason. … We want to be one of them, right? And we're just not there yet.” https://t.co/LFiFA4o7pz
— WEEI (@WEEI) November 15, 2026
The Bruins might not be as tested over the next couple weeks, with five of their next six games against teams not currently in a playoff spot. They are 7-1-0 in such matchups this season. So, perhaps they can use this as a get-right stretch before things get much tougher to start December, when six of their first seven games will be against Colorado, Florida, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Carolina, and Florida again.
