Bruins’ Don Sweeney Gives Positive Early Season Evaluation Of Team

Three months into the grueling 82-game NHL season, the Boston Bruins are the top seed in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference to the New York Rangers, along with having the No. 1 penalty kill in the league.

Not bad for the franchise that saw star centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retiring and other departures from the 2022-23 roster.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney gave a positive evaluation of the team after practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday.

“I think we’re positive about where our club is at,” Sweeney said, per team-provided transcript. “We described to them that it’s going to be a work in progress, and there’s going to be some growing pains associated with our hockey club.”

During the offseason, Sweeney said the Bruins wouldn’t block the younger players from making the roster and he was true to his word with forwards Johnny Beecher and Matthew Poitras cracking the lineup from opening night and defenseman Mason Lohrei getting called up during a string of injuries on the back end.

“We’ve introduced some young players, so there’s going to be some growing pains with each and every one of them,” Sweeney said. “New bodies, when you think about where (James van Riemsdyk), (Kevin Shattenkirk) and (Morgan Geekie) and what they’ve come in and provided for our hockey club, leadership and production in different roles.”

The Bruins have only lost back-to-back games once this season and that is largely in part to the goaltending tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

“Offensively we’re tracking okay there, we’re in the top 10 of respected categories for both power play and in five-on-five. Probably a notch below from the finish standpoint, so we hope that comes back online and being healthy,” Sweeney said. “Penalty killing remains to be really stout, again, partly goaltenders, they get a lot of credit in that regard what Joe (Sacco) and the group does there.”

Sweeney added: “We’re a competitive group. We expect to be competitive. Now, we’ve got to stay healthy, keep moving forward, and keep getting better.”

Boston gets back to work on Tuesday night when they welcome the Minnesota Wild to TD Garden. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.