by Bob Morello
Bruins fight for points over the final five weeks
As of today’s current standings (Tuesday) the Boston Bruins have 18 regular season games remaining. That signals the urgency of gaining every point within their reach. Nothing sticks out more conspicuously than the locals’ loss of a much needed point in their game on Sunday versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, especially after going into the third period holding a two-goal lead. It was a contest in which the Pens were without two of their top players – injured captain Sidney Crosby and suspended Evgeni Malkin. For the optimist: the Bruins have 76 points (not including their game versus the L.A. Kings), putting them in the second Wild Card spot, trailing the Montreal Canadiens by two points for the first spot in the Wild Card race, and only three points out of the third spot in the Atlantic Division – now held by the Detroit Red Wings. For the pessimist, there are a host of issues: the Columbus Blue Jackets are coming on fast, joined by the Ottawa Senators behind Boston for the last Wild Card spot. That’s just a smattering of the importance of the single-point theory, many other factors will determine the fate of the Bruins in the Eastern Division playoffs. Thoughts that come to mind include David Pastrnak who up until Sunday was mired in an eight-game goal scoring slump, the ability of the B’s goaltenders and their inconsistency, as shown in Joonas Korpisalo’s somewhat weak performance versus Pittsburgh on Sunday. As for Jeremy Swayman, the question has been which Jeremy Swayman will show up for this game – will it be the solid guy who plays a steady, tight game, or the one who allows some questionable soft goals – not the kind of worry that the guys playing out front should have as concerns. In either case, the next five weeks of the regular season will bring to the forefront, this team’s strengths and weaknesses. The Bruins now have 19 road losses this season, and have 11 more road games to play over those five weeks remaining. They need to figure out how they’ve managed to win twice as many games on home ice (24), and lost almost twice as many on the road. Coming up on the schedule for Boston, are the Macklin Celebrini-led San Jose Sharks on Thursday (tonight) at 7:00pm, Celebrini is the former Boston University alum, headed for the 90-point mark this season. Following the Sharks’ visit, the locals begin a three-game road trip with stops in New Jersey Monday 7:00pm to face the Devils, and then back-to-back on Tuesday 7:00pm, with the Montreal Canadiens providing the competition, and return to TD Garden ice on Thursday 7:00pm to host the Winnipeg Jets. This past week saw the Bruins making a couple of moves by acquiring forward Lukas Reichel from the Vancouver Canucks, and signing defenseman Frederic Brunet to a contract extension. The stats for Reichel include: Bruins G Don Sweeney surrendered a 2026 sixth-round for the 23-year old 6-foot, 170 pounder, who has appeared in 19 games with Vancouver and Chicago this season, tallying two goals and three assists for five points. Reichel has played 188 career NHL games with Vancouver and Chicago, totaling 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points. Chicago originally selected the Nuremberg, Germany native in the first round (17th overall) of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Brunet agreed to a two-year contract extension with an annual NHL cap hit of $875,000. The deal is a two-way contract for the 2026-27 season and a one-way contract for the 2027-28 season. Brunet, 22, made his NHL debut with Boston on April 15, 2025. He has appeared in 55 games with the Providence Bruins this season, leading the team’s defensemen in scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists for 28 points. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound blueliner has played in 173 career AHL games, all with Providence, recording 18 goals and 49 assists for 67 points. The Gatineau, Quebec native was originally selected by Boston in the fifth round (132nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.