Bruins Recap: Week Ending November 23rd, 2025: Bruins stumble; Geekie stars in Hollywood

(Photo credit: Boston Bruins via Instagram)

This time last week the Bruins were first place in the Atlantic Division and riding high following a high profile win over the Canadiens in Montreal.

However, for those who read last week's recap, you may remember that caution was thrown to the wind regarding Boston's final five games before American Thanksgiving where it was noted that ...

"12-8-0 can quickly regress into 12-11-2 over the next five games prior to American Thanksgiving just as easily as it could improve to 15-8-2."

Low and behold here we are now and the Bruins are 13-11-0 having gone 1-3-0 in their four games since.

Recent results have dropped them to 4th in the Atlantic Division in points (24), and 6th in points percentage (.542) with one game remaining before the holiday break.

Now my warning wasn't for no reason, and it certainly wasn't me hoping it would end up the case - there were just some developments and dynamics that didn't seem optimal over what would be this past weeks slate of games.

First and foremost is Boston's ever compiling injury list.

Their awesome team win over Montreal didn't come without collateral damage.

Charlie McAvoy, and Viktor Arvidsson both left the game with injuries and are sidelined indefinitely - McAvoy in particular has been placed on injured reserve.

Already without Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, and Jordan Harris - Boston was going to have their work cut out for them this past week as the battle of attrition continued on.

Fortunately, Lindholm was reactivated from injured reserve prior to the Bruins game in San Jose and reinserted into the lineup - but not before games against Carolina, Anaheim, and Los Angeles.

Which leads me to the other reasoning for my skepticism heading into this past week which was a difficult stretch of games against quality opponents with difficult travel.

While Boston was already able to eke out an impressive 2-1 win against Carolina earlier this season at TD Garden, it just felt like it wasn't going to happen twice in two weeks and that the Hurricanes owed the Bruins a bit of a receipt.

That's exactly what happened as Carolina took it to Boston - defeating them 3-1 in what appeared to be an emotional let down for the Bruins in the wake of Montreal.

From there Boston had to pack their bags and head out west to California where they had to battle time changes and three opponents playing great hockey starting in Anaheim.

Having already defeated the Bruins once already this year, the Ducks are currently 1st place in the Pacific Division and 3rd in the NHL in goal differential +11.

The Bruins played a strong road game against Anaheim and probably deserved a better fate by earning at least 1 point in the standings.

But despite having more shots, face-off wins, blocked shots, less give aways, twice as many hits, and more effective special teams - the Bruins unfortunately found another way to give up a late goal in regulation preventing them from going to overtime.

In fact, it was the 5th time this year that Boston had given up an oppositions game winning goal with under 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

Those lost overtime points add up at the end of a season for a team that may very well be in and around the playoff bubble.

Now while there was no magical ending for Boston in the shadows of Disneyland, they were fortunately able to rewrite the script as the scene shifted to Los Angeles.

Scoreless midway through the 3rd period, Morgan Geekie wired home a one-timer in transition off a pass from Alex Steeves to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

While the Kings unfortunately tied the game shortly thereafter on a shorthanded goal with just under 7 minutes remaining - it was Geekie who gave an encore performance - scoring his 2nd of the game and lifting the Bruins to a Hollywood ending, overtime win.

Now 1-1-0 on the road trip and 1-2-0 on the week, the Bruins had a golden chance to get back to .500 on the week and earn a winning record on the west coast with a win over the Sharks in San Jose.

As history now tells us, that wasn't meant to be and while the Bruins once again played a pretty strong road game - it ended up being their 2nd regulation loss on the trip and 3rd regulation loss in their last 4 games.

However, unlike the Bruins loss in Anaheim where they were the better team throughout regulation with nothing to show for it - that wasn't really the case in San Jose.

The Sharks (now winners in 11 of their last 17) to their credit, too played a strong game and ultimately won the special teams battle despite Boston killing off a near full length 5-on-3 power play for San Jose.

It's worth noting that while the Sharks had the lone power play goal of the game, they had twice as many opportunities as Boston did - going 1-for-6 on the man advantage, while the Bruins went 0-for-3.

Moral of the story for Boston?

Stay out of the box.

While the Bruins have the 11th ranked penalty kill in the league - and thank goodness for that - penalties have been killing Boston this year and they continue to take far too many.

They are the most penalized team in the NHL, and by a rather decent margin.

Now while it's great that their PK is strong, taking too many penalties ruins the flow of the game at even strength and steals crucial minutes away from top scorers like David Pastrnak and Geekie who don't kill penalties.

Simultaneous to that, their penalty killing forwards and defensemen are spending way too much time and energy shorthanded that it takes away from even strength energy.

Overall, Boston may have been marginally the better team at even strength compared to the Sharks but too much time in the sin bin proved costly.

For a team like Boston who doesn't possess the deepest offensive lineup, nor the best of health right now - it's going to be vital for them to stay disciplined moving forward.

Goaltending and special teams are all in or around top-10 in the league right now - what happens if those metrics drop off a bit while continuing to take too many penalties?

Their discipline needs to improve - plain and simple.

Boston is a hard working team, they need to lean into that and go to the areas of the ice where opponents will be forced to make more obvious infractions on them.

The Bruins have one more opportunity to right the ship before American Thanksgiving and it's on the road against another team that's playing impressive, confident hockey right now - the New York Islanders.

True the Bruins are already 2-0-0 against the Isles this year, but also true that New York has a 7-3-0 since the two teams last played while the Bruins are 5-4-0 in that same stretch of time.

The Bruins then play host to the New York Rangers on Friday afternoon at TD Garden followed by a massive home and home against the Detroit Red Wings over the weekend.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, everyone!