Bruins Recap - Week Ending November 29th, 2025: Battle of attrition gets tougher; Geekie stays white hot

(Photo Credit: Boston Bruins via X)

Winners in two of their three games this past week, the battle of attrition continues to be the Bruins toughest opponent as of late.

After securing an impressive 3-1 victory on the road against the Islanders on Wednesday night, the injury bug struck Boston once again prior to their traditional day after Thanksgiving matinee at TD Garden.

Already without Charlie McAvoy, Viktor Arvidsson, Jordan Harris, and Matej Blumel (who had yet to make much of a positive impact since being called up) - fans, and media got word shortly before puck drop against the Rangers that both David Pastrnak, and Pavel Zacha would not be in the lineup and were being listed as day-to-day.

Talk about uncharted territory for both the Bruins and for Pastrnak - Friday against the Rangers was the first time Pastrnak had missed a game in over three seasons.

He played all 82 games during the 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025 seasons.

Including his 25 games played this year, Pastrnak had played in 271 consecutive regular season games up until this week.

His ironman streak is even longer when you account for the postseason:

Fortunately for the Bruins, Casey Mittelstadt was removed from IR on an emergency basis an inserted into the lineup - without practice time - for the first time since November 6th.

Still, taking the ice without McAvoy, Pastrnak, and Zacha in particular was a very tall task and the Bruins clearly weren't up to it early on.

They were badly outplayed in the first period - more so due to their own sloppiness, and lethargic energy than anything else - and fell behind 2-0 after twenty minutes.

While Boston's effort and intensity improved over the final forty minutes of play, they found themselves in a 4-0 hole that they ultimately couldn't climb out of - and despite making it 4-2 with 14:11 remaining in regulation, the Bruins were unable to capitalize on momentum gained, or their goalie being pulled and ended up losing 6-2 on a day where they simply didn't earn anything more.

Adding to the injury list following their loss to the Blue Shirts was Henri Jokiharju who left the game with an undisclosed injury and who did not take the ice Saturday where Boston started an ever important, divisional home and home against Detroit.

However, one player who didn't watch the Red Wings game injured and from the 9th floor was Zacha who made his return to the lineup after missing just the one game.

Pastrnak, meanwhile, missed his second consecutive game.

The Bruins took the ice against the Detroit with a purpose.

Morgan Geekie provided Boston with both of their regulation goals thanks to his 19th, and league leading 20th of the season.

Casey Mittelstadt scored the lone marker in the shootout, and Jeremy Swayman was fantastic from start to finish - including three calm shootout saves against Mason Raymond, Patrick Kane, and Alex Debrincat - securing a massive two points for Boston.

As for this upcoming week.

The Bruins head to Detroit to finish off their home and home with the Red Wings before coming back home to play host to Jim Montgomery and the St. Louis Blues, and New Jersey Devils on Thursday, and Saturday.

Items to keep an eye on are the health status' and availability of Pastrnak, Arvidsson, and Charlie McAvoy.

Pastrnak is considered day-to-day, while McAvoy, and Arvidsson are both still listed on IR but have been skating on their own.

Boston heads into game action this week with a record of 15-12-0.

That's good for 2nd place in the Atlantic Division based on points (30), and 4th place based on points percentage (.556).

The question is, can they maintain or improve their standing?

Well there's no doubt that it's going to be extremely difficult if Pastrnak, and McAvoy simultaneously continue to miss any more time.

The hope is that at least Pastrnak will be back any game now.

Additionally - and as mentioned in last week's publication - the Bruins need to be much more disciplined in staying out of the box.

Penalties are going to happen, it's part of the game, but they can't continue to march to the box more than any other team in the league and not expect it to haunt them at some point - despite having the 9th best penalty kill in the league (83%).

All that said, if we're also going to also discuss why Boston can maintain or improve their current standing, being top ten in both special teams categories is one reason.

In addition to their aforementioned 9th ranked penalty kill, the Bruins also boast the league's 4th best power play (25.3%).

Now how efficient will the power play remain if Pastrnak continues to miss time?

Remains to be seen, but it's probably safe to say their conversion rate would dip a bit without one of the world's top goal scorers and playmakers.

Another favorable reason for Boston maintaining or improving their standing going forward is that Jeremy Swayman has been one of the best goaltenders in the league this season.

When considering how hard Boston plays each game, the fact that they have one of the league's top goaltenders, and that they are top ten in both special teams categories - they should be able to hang around the playoff picture as the season goes along.

If this team can get fully healthy or close to it, they could perhaps even gain some separation from the pack in what's been an Eastern Conference full of parody this year.

To my recollection, the only time that Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Mittelstadt, and Arvidsson were all in the same lineup was the first few minutes of the 2nd game of the season before H. Lindholm left due to injury.

Since then it's been one (significant) injury after another.

H. Lindholm goes down for eight games.

Then E. Lindholm gets hurt for ten, and Mittelstadt for nine.

H. Lindholm finally comes back, and then shortly after it's McAvoy and Arvidsson who go down for seven games and counting.

E. Lindholm at long last returns, and then Pastrnak goes down and Zacha briefly.

Now it's Mittelstadt who's back.

In and out, in and out, over and over.

Hopefully the Bruins are better off for this adversity in the long run and can start to get better health on their side throughout the remainder of the season.

They're going to need to it if they want to win the battle of attrition.