The Boston Bruins were back on the ice last week at Warrior Ice Arena for the annual captain’s practices before training camp opens later this month.
After finishing in last place in the Eastern Conference with an overall record of 33-39-10 last season, the Bruins failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign, and general manager Don Sweeney was forced — once again — to get crafty in the offseason to fill out the roster after selling off contributing players at the trade deadline last March.
One media outlet has the Black and Gold finishing dead last in the division again this season, and another has Boston near the bottom of the league in “contract efficiency.”
Jeremy Swayman and Nikita Zadorov are not buying what some media types are saying and are ready to prove the doubters wrong.
SWAYMAN IS READY FOR A REBOUND SEASON
Swayman, like the Bruins, struggled to get going after a prolonged contract battle that surely took a heavy mental toll on the netminder. He posted a 22-29-7 record last year with a .892 save percentage and a 3.11 goals against average.
With all of that behind him, fans can expect to see “the” Jeremy Swayman between the pipes, who took the net from Linus Ullmark in the 2023-24 postseason.
“I’m a completely different human being,” Swayman told reporters on Sept. 4, per team-provided video. “And that’s a testament to the experience that I gained throughout my career to this point. And I’m so grateful for that — the ups and downs of it all. And standing here, Jeremy Swayman is in a great spot, and I’m really excited about that.
“And to have that approach of creating a culture, creating myself a culture to be elite, and hopefully it will bleed into this room and have guys follow that way. So, that’s something that I have to set a standard for myself, and we have a great room that’s going to do the same. It’s going to be a contagious locker room for that, and we’re really excited for that.”
One of the factors that led to the ups and downs of his 2024-25 campaign was that he missed training camp while he waited for his contract extension. Even though Swayman trained and skated at Boston University, the former Black Bear acknowledged just how important it is to train with his Bruins teammates.
“It’s an extremely important time of the year,” he said. “If I didn’t have that experience, I probably wouldn’t understand the importance of it. So yeah, this definitely allowed me to prepare a little bit differently come training camp time — and looking forward to it.
“And that’s something I’ve really rallied behind is being in this locker room, just alluding love to everyone because I missed them at this time of year last year. So, that for me is something that again, without the experience that I had, I wouldn’t have it right now. And I’m grateful for it. So, I’m just gonna ride that high and make sure everyone’s feeling that love.”
“We got to show it on the ice. We can talk all day in here, what we got to change, what we got to do, but we got to go out there and compete for the crest on our chest, for this team, for the city.” — Nikita Zadorov
BRUINS HAVE “EXTRA CHIP” ON THEIR SHOULDERS ENTERING SEASON
Entering his second season with the Black and Gold, defenseman Nikita Zadorov made it clear that he is ready to prove the team’s critics wrong.
“Obviously, we didn’t get it done last year, and it’s unacceptable for this city and this club to not make the playoffs,” Zadorov told reporters on Sept. 2, per team-provided video. “We’re just going to redeem ourselves. We’ve got to go back out there and do our job and make the playoffs this year. That’s how we look at it. I think that’s how we’re looking at it. I mean, you’ve got to take it step by step. I don’t think you want to look into the future.
“You come in here, you want to get ready for camp. You want to have a good camp. You want to get to know all the guys. We’re going to have a lot of new faces in the room again this year, so kind of get a mojo going, get (some) chemistry going, and then we’ll see from there. The main goal for us is to get back to the playoffs and show our fans, show the city what we can do.”
He continued: “We’re reading what you guys are writing, and it doesn’t get past this room. So I think obviously, being underdogs this year — being a team that nobody is putting anywhere even close to where we should be — it’s kind of putting an extra chip on our shoulders, for sure.”
Zadorov knows the team will have to back up his words on the ice if they plan to silence the doubters.
“We got to show it on the ice,” he said. “We can talk all day in here, what we got to change, what we got to do, but we got to go out there and compete for the crest on our chest, for this team, for the city.
“This organization has been setting the standards in professional sports all over this country for such a long time. I think there’s a standard in here, and there’s an expectation from our fans that we’re just going to go out there and play for our hearts.”
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