Boston Bruins
“I can’t give you an answer right now, honestly. … Honestly, I have no idea why. I really don’t.”
Marco Sturm was at a loss after the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to Ottawa. (Photo by: Barry Chin/Globe Staff)
October 6, 2026 | 7:41 AM
3 minutes to read
Marco Sturm wasn’t sounding the alarm entering the Bruins’ home game against the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
Through three games, Boston’s bench boss liked what he saw from his team, at least on 5-on-5 play.
But there were a few red flags sprouting up for his club — namely a power play that didn’t cash in on any of its first six opportunities to open a new season of hockey.
“I’m not really concerned. But at some point, I think we need a spark,” Sturm said of Boston’s power play Monday morning. “If you look around the league already, some of the top teams, the top power plays. They’re right back on track where they finished last year. … I really liked our five-on-five play. The first three games, I really did. It was very, very good. Special teams, we’ve just got to crank it up.
Sturm’s sentiment about Boston’s lackluster special teams play didn’t improve after Monday’s home matchup against Ottawa.
In fact, there were few positives to draw from the Bruins’ disheartening 4-1 setback against the Senators at TD Garden.
“We dropped the ball at home. Didn’t come ready to play today,” Nikita Zadorov said. “You can see it from the first minute of the game. I don’t know why.”
Poor special teams play might have loomed over Boston’s first regulation loss of the season in Minnesota on Saturday night.
And it snowballed during Monday’s defeat against an Atlantic Division rival, with Boston booed off the ice in just its second game on Causeway Street.
Not only did Boston not cash in on any of its four power play bids against Ottawa, but Strum’s club also relinquished a shorthanded goal — with another tally from Tim Stützle coming just seconds after that same disastrous man advantage expired in the first period.
Through four games, Boston is now 0-for-10 on the power play with a negative goal differential.
Speaking after a loss, Sturm could only shrug his shoulders at what has led to Boston’s stark downturn on the power play so far this season.
“It’s a good question. I really don’t know,” Sturm said of the issues plaguing Boston’s power play. “I can’t give you an answer right now, honestly. … Honestly, I have no idea why. I really don’t. I have to just look at some clips, and I think as a group, you have to ask yourself, too — the guys who are on the ice in general, on the power play, and as a group, we have to get better. That’s just the way it is.”
A lack of shot volume, cohesion, and back-breaking turnovers have thwarted Boston’s man advantage out of the gate.
In the Bruins’ 17:45 of power play reps so far this season, Boston has only generated two high-danger scoring chances — and given up one high-danger look down the other end of the ice.
Most importantly, they’ve been outscored, 1-0, over that same stretch.
And all things considered, it should be a 2-0 edge in opposing goals — as Stützle’s second goal came just a few seconds after teammate Warren Foegele was released from the sin bin.
A turnover from Pastrnak led to the first odd-man rush that Stützle cashed in on, while a dreadful pass from Hampus Lindholm sparked the German forward’s second tally in the span of just 1:43.
“Lack of confidence,” David Pastrnak said of Boston’s struggles on the power play. “Puck is bouncing, whether it’s with the hands or confidence. Have to be more direct. We have to recover pucks. We’re one and done.
“Obviously a lot has to do with confidence. We just have to find it. We proved that we can be a good power play last year. So we just got to get back to it.”
Pastrnak is right in that the Bruins boasted a top-10 power play last season — ranking ninth in the league with a 23.4 percent success rate.
But most of that top-10 standing was a byproduct of a sustained stretch of strong play before the Olympic break — with Boston ranking third in the league on the power play with a 26.3 percent success rate from October 2025 to early February 2026.
Since returning from the 2026 Olympic break (and carrying into this season), the Bruins have had the fourth-worst man advantage — cashing in on just 14.1 percent of their looks on the power play.
Something has to change — and fast — for Sturm’s club to snap any fears that last year’s regression might be more of the norm moving forward.
“The head was not there today. It wasn’t,” Sturm said of his team. “We made a lot of mistakes we didn’t do, power play, you name it. So I tried [to change things], but I knew right away we’re not going anywhere today.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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