Haggerty: Repeated flaws come back to bite B's in road defeat
The Boston Bruins set out on this current, pivotal three game road swing hoping to bank at least three points out of an available six points while fighting to hold onto their current wild card playoff spot in the East. The Black and Gold accomplished that reasonable goal while ultimately falling in a 4-3 overtime decision to the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on Monday night after blowing a 2-0 lead after the first period of play. Truthfully, David Pastrnak turned in a superstar performance to earn the B’s a point by scoring a pair of goals, including a toe drag beauty weaving through Devils defenders before beating Jakob Markstrom five hole with a backhanded bid.
NHL Notes: Road woes could be big playoff deal for Bruins
The Boston Bruins have a road problem that’s going to have to improve down the stretch if they hope to be a playoff team. The Black and Gold dropped their fifth road game in a row – if one counts the outdoor Stadium Series game in Tampa as a road tilt – with a 3-1 loss to the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon, and some of the happenings in defeat had the familiar ring of other losses on the road this season. The loss dropped the B’s to 11-13-4 on the road this season, a mark that will need to improved as the Bruins play a slew of road games at the very end of the season when a wild card spot is likely to be clinched.
NHL Notes: Swayman hitting high notes at the right time for B's
When the Boston Bruins signed Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year, big money contract they envisioned the exact goaltender that they received in a dominating, clutch performance during a huge weekend road tilt against the Red Wings in Detroit. With massive points for a playoff push on the line, Swayman was dynamite making 41 saves in a 4-2 win for the Black and Gold over the Red Wings where the Bruins had a very clear advantage in net as Detroit’s John Gibson faltered badly in the third period. Swayman has been solid for the balance of the regular season, but he’s been excellent since the Olympic break coming off a gold medal experience and giving his B’s teammates all kinds of confidence when he’s between the pipes right now.
Haggerty: Swayman ready to ride Olympic momentum for B's
The jubilant smile was constant and beaming on Jeremy Swayman’s face as he waxed philosophic about being a gold medalist at the 2026 Winter Olympics in the friendly, comfortable environs of the Warrior Ice Arena dressing room after Wednesday’s return to his B’s group. It didn’t matter that Swayman had landed back in Boston in the wee hours of the morning and had little sleep before suiting up for Wednesday’s team practice ahead of Thursday night’s season-resuming game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at TD Garden. The game on Thursday night, by the way, is one that Swayman is looking to participate in after serving as the Team USA backup netminder for all but one game in the Olympic tournament while watching Connor Hellebuyck play the hero’s role for the Red, White and Blue.
Haggerty: Bruins lagging offensively with 'best players' struggling
It’s getting to the time of year when the best players for the Boston Bruins need to step it up if they’re going to crash the Stanley Cup playoff party. The B’s could only scratch for a pair of goals in the third period in a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night where they outshot the Sharks, but couldn’t finish off enough plays against a San Jose goalie in Alex Nedeljkovic that admittedly played very well while making 39 saves for the Sharks. “We were just looking for that one goal, and it just didn’t happen for maybe too long,” said Marco Sturm. “We know once we get one going, we get the crowd going and we can change the game. But for some reason it was a little off today and we weren’t sharp. We had early chances and couldn’t score, and that was the hockey game.”
Haggerty: We get the US/Canada matchup we've been waiting for
The United States and Canada did their parts and now hockey fans everywhere get their dream matchup for the Gold Medal with Team USA and Team Canada set to tangle on Sunday morning as the final big event at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan Cortina. For Bruins fans, they get to watch Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman (from the bench as the backup, anyway) line up against old friend Brad Marchand and a Canada crew that always seems to pull it out in the end against the Americans. They will have to do it this time without captain Sidney Crosby, though, as he has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a lower body injury suffered in the quarterfinals against Czechia.
BSJ Live Q & A: Haggerty after Toronto stinker, Buffalo road game -- 11 a.m. Friday 03.27.26
After an "embarrassing" loss to the Maple Leafs on home ice and a big road game in Buffalo, Haggs is here to answer your Bruins questions about the NHL roster or about the B's decision to start 19-year-old James Hagens down in Providence.
BSJ Live Q&A: Haggerty on Bruins stretch run, playoff hopes -- 11 a.m. Thursday 03.12.26
With the Bruins entering a stretch of home games after a tough back-to-back last weekend against the Capitals and Penguins, Haggs is here for all of your B's and NHL-related questions. So get them ready!
Haggerty: Bruins showing they've got right playoff stuff
It really shouldn’t come as a major surprise at this point, but the Boston Bruins continue to clearly demonstrate they have “the stuff” to be a playoff team this spring. It remains to be seen how it’s going to play out for them and Tuesday night’s home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was as unimpressive as it gets for the Black and Gold, but it was more than offset by the B’s shaking off some third period troubles to knock off the Sabres in overtime in a 4-3 comeback road victory at the KeyBank Center on Wednesday night. The win allowed the B’s to open up a three-point cushion on the top wild card playoff spot and pulled them into a tie with the Montreal Canadiens for the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, though the Habs hold two games in hand on the Black and Gold entering Thursday.
Haggerty: Sending Hagens to the AHL is right B's move
The Boston Bruins announced in the wee hours of Monday evening that James Hagens has signed an ATO (amateur tryout agreement) with the Providence Bruins and will start his pro career in Providence this week. There has, of course, been the usual second-guessing from the corners of the internet and social media that don’t really have a clue about hockey player development. But this was the plan that B’s management wanted to follow through with when it comes to the 19-year-old Hagens joining a loaded Providence roster full of good, veteran pros that presumably have a long Calder Cup playoff run in front of them.
Haggerty: B's finding moral victories at end of the road
One of the characters from one of the greatest sports movies of all time, “White Men Can’t Jump”, has a signature, purposely somewhat nonsensical philosophy about winning and losing in sports. “Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.” The Boston Bruins lost Tuesday night’s road trip finale, 3-2, to the Habs in overtime at the Bell Centre in Montreal and actually lost two of the three games on the road swing through Washington, New Jersey and Montreal. But in many ways, they took wins out of pushing Tuesday’s game in Montreal to the overtime, and of taking four out of a possible six points in three challenging spots while playing three games in four days on the road.
Haggerty: Recent B's play making it difficult for Sweeney
The read on the Bruins situation entering Friday’s NHL trade deadline is not an easy one for Don Sweeney and the rest of the B’s decision makers. The B’s definitely aren’t a perfect team as is the case with pretty much every team in the running for wild card playoffs spots, and the struggles on the road are a very real issue for the Black and Gold. The Bruins dropped their sixth road game in a row in a 6-3 loss to the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena where the hockey club was pretty much dead-on arrival in the second period and have now sunk to an 11-14-4 record away from TD Garden this season. If that continues the Bruins will not be a playoff team while playing six of their final nine games on the road this season, including a pair of games in Columbus against a Blue Jackets team that’s just a point behind them in the Eastern Conference standings.