November 8, 2023 | 11:16am ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

BRUINS CULTURE, MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR EARLY-SEASON SUCCESS

Brad Marchand, forward

BOSTON, MA — American Thanksgiving will be celebrated in two weeks and if you subscribe to the theory that if an NHL team is in a playoff position when the holiday arrives, that club will be a participant in the Stanley Cup playoffs in the month of April.

That theory, for lack of a better term, has proven to be valid for the majority of the teams that have laced up the skates when the postseason begins over the last several years.

With that in mind, the Bruins and their fans will enjoy their turkey dinners knowing the Black and Gold, which posted a 10-1-1 (21 points) record in its first 12 games, has positioned themselves to see action when the puck drops with Lord Stanley’s Cup on the line.

Winning 10-of-12 games has placed Boston at the top of the Eastern Conference standings and second in the overall League standings. Only the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, who have jumped out to an 11-1-1 (23 points) start, own a better record than the Bruins.

After setting a new standard last year by posting the best record (65-12-5) in the history of the NHL, it was expected by everyone in and around hockey that success would carry over to this season and Boston would continue to be one of the league’s most dominant teams.

Okay, actually, that is not true.

Due to salary cap restrictions and retirements, the Bruins said goodbye to 10 players (Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Dmitri Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Clifton, David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron) from the 2022-23 roster and replaced them with veterans who appeared to be on the back-nine of their careers (Kevin Shattenkirk, Milan Lucic, James Van Riemsdyk, Danton Heinen, Patrick Brown) while also adding players who lacked significant NHL experience (Mason Lohrei, Matthew Poitras, Johnny Beecher, Morgan Geekie, Jakub Lauko, Oskar Steen, Ian Mitchell, Parker Wotherspoon).

This has led fans, friends, and family members to ask me, “How are they doing it?”

I had my thoughts and opinions on the question but instead of trying to explain it without having anything concrete to back them up, I decided to go directly to a source who could answer the question. I went to Bruins captain Brad Marchand.

“I just think that there’s a culture here that we have and guys come and buy in right away,” Marchand answered. “I think you gotta give the management a ton of credit. When they bring guys in, they make sure they’re guys that will buy into the culture in the organization and what the team wants to do. It’s a huge priority for them when they’re looking at guys. They make sure they won’t cause issues in the room. That’s a non-negotiable and everyone that’s come in has left everything on the ice every single day and have done everything they can to build chemistry within the group.

“And it’s not easy when you have that many new bodies to find that chemistry early, but the biggest thing is everyone competes hard and works and it just falls into place.”

After Marchand answered my question, the scene from the movie “Miracle” came to mind, and if you have seen the film, you know which scene I am talking about. It is the one where coach Herb Brooks submits his roster for the 1980 United States Olympic Team and he is told that he does not have all of the best players on the list to which Brooks answers, “I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right ones.”

As is evident from the success the Bruins have enjoyed this season, everyone is competing and everything has fallen into place, but the most important point made by Marchand is that management does its homework on players they are considering bringing in and that is how management has always done its job.

Yes, there have been a handful of good players who have worn the Spoked B and did not play for Boston for an extended period of time. Players who were expected to contribute to the success of the franchise may have been popular with the fans, but for whatever reasons, they did not fit in. And as former Bruins forward Chis Kelly told me in 2014, “If a player doesn’t fit in, they won’t be here for long.”

With the expectation that the Bruins will compete for the Stanley Cup each year, it can be no other way.

Throughout Boston’s 100-year history, management – from Art Ross to Don Sweeney – has been successful in employing players who have contributed to teams that have won 3,367 games (second-most in NHL history), followed by 338 postseason wins (also second-most in League history), played in 20 Stanley Cup Finals, and won six Stanley Cups.

So, how are the Bruins off to a 10-1-1 start? It is a multi-tiered effort on behalf of management and the players.

Management has brought in the players who respect the Bruins culture and want to be a part of it and in turn, those players are putting in the effort night after night to ensure Boston’s culture and winning tradition are preserved.

It is early but as 2023-24 progresses, it is becoming more apparent that Bruins management has assembled the right players for this season.