Bruins Postgame: Homecoming Spoiled, What Went Wrong

November 13, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Boston Bruins’ “Homecoming” game turned into a nightmare reunion with their biggest rival.

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The Bruins (13-5-1) fell flat on Thursday night, losing 5-2 to the Montreal Canadiens (11-3-4) and ceding the top spot in the Atlantic Division. Casey Mittelstadt scored twice for the Bruins, but Jeremy Swayman was pulled for the first time this season after allowing four goals on 17 shots, and Michael DiPietro made 12 saves in relief.

“Overall, we were just not good enough,” Marco Sturm said postgame. “Me included. Goalie, players, you name it. It’s just today was not good, and yeah, 4-0, you usually try to do something, I guess. But yeah, I think we all can do better.”

Swayman lasted just 28:14. He made 13 saves, but allowed three high-danger goals against on six high-danger shots. He finished with -1.78 goals saved above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Canadiens beat him twice on breakaways, and beat him twice within six feet of the net.

“You never want to do that, and you care so much, especially when you’re feeling good, which I was,” Swayman said. “Again, I trust Marco 100 percent, his decisions. I think, you know, at that time, that was the right call. And again, I think we responded well. Like, we had a good push. So whatever it takes for us to get that push is what we needed.”

While Sturm pointed to everyone, including himself, the Bruins captain and Frederic Brunet focused on the group playing in front of Swayman.

“It’s on us,” Pastrnak said. “I think we all know it. It’s not on him. Yeah, you feel bad for him. We let him swim in there.”

“I mean, it’s definitely not on Sway. It’s just bad plays in front of the net or some breakaways. Just like, there’s nothing you can do sometimes, and we got to be better and get him some shots that are not grade As,” Brunet said. “And I mean, that’s on us. And the fact that he got pulled is probably to change the momentum and try to do something different, but it’s definitely not on him, and we got to be better for him.”

Is there anything Jeremy Swayman could have done differently on the four goals?

Swayman: “Stop them.”

“Yeah, of course. You learn from everything, and that’s what you need at this point in the season is just, you know, learning different scenarios, and a little adversity isn’t… pic.twitter.com/9vxBCAcrGa

— Jack Studley (@jackstudley13) November 13, 2026

The problems started early, and the energy inside TD Garden quickly faded. The Canadiens scored twice within the first 8:36, and despite the Bruins holding a 21-17 advantage in 5-on-5 shot attempts, they struggled to establish their game through the first 20 minutes. They looked more alive late in the first period, but only after a sluggish power play opportunity.

“Hopefully [we learned] a good lesson,” Sturm said. “We always talk about how hard this league is, and especially in rivalry games like this, a game like that, Montreal at home. We were just very flat. It was just, there was nothing going on. I felt like David’s line was the only line early on. They pushed; they worked. But overall, it was just very flat. And all of a sudden, you’re down 2-0 because of it. For me, that was the disappointing part today, that we just came out flat.”

With Pastrnak’s line on the ice at 5-on-5, the Bruins outattempted the Canadiens 26-12. They logged 13:25 together, but they were outshot 9-8 and outscored 2-0. The Bruins also saw a productive game out of their third line, who primarily matched up against the top line; they outattempted the Canadiens 15-6, outshot them 9-3, and outscored them 2-0.

The Bruins were coming off an emotional divisional game, one that saw 126 penalty minutes, two fights, and seven 10-minute misconducts. The Canadiens were having none of that on Thursday. Tanner Jeannot tried to make his physical presence felt, but Arber Xhekaj was not willing to entertain a rematch.

“I think in the past, they (the Canadiens) had a little bit, I would say, more meat in the lineup. I know they traded one or two away, but overall, they’re pretty even [with] the lines, especially up front with more skill, more speed,” Sturm said. “We wanted to play our grinding game and we just couldn’t because they were having the puck a lot. So end of the day, yeah, we couldn’t find our game today for some reason.”

After showing some signs of life late in the first period, the Bruins started the second period in the offensive zone. They generated pressure and used the long change to their advantage, but put just two shots on Jacob Fowler before the Canadiens extended the lead on their first shot of the period. The Bruins’ push for offense also left them vulnerable on the back end, with both Jake Evans and Cole Caufield capitalizing on breakaways.

“Not everything was bad, especially in the second period, we came out a little bit swinging, had a good push there. I really liked it. But then we almost were too aggressive and you could see it, having two breakaways against,” Sturm said. “As soon as that happened, I knew we were just not on the same page today, unfortunately. With this kind of team, with this kind of skill … we gotta be very, very well structured and disciplined, and we just weren’t.”

Casey Mittelstadt provided the only goals for the brown and gold on Thursday, scoring twice as the Bruins trailed 5-0. His pair of goals gave the Bruins something to build on late in the game, but the damage had already been done.

The loss snapped both a four-game win streak and a seven-game home win streak for the Bruins. It marked their first home loss since the beginning of October, and their last regulation loss came to the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 29. Their four-game homestand continues on Saturday night when the Bruins close out their season series with the Minnesota Wild, and they have little time to dwell on Thursday’s loss.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously you’re going to have games like this. It’s a long year, but you want to at least find your game and feel good heading into the next one. You don’t want it to carry over,” Mittelstadt said. “I think that we did some good things maybe later in the game, in the second and the third. But at the same time, it’s a big match for us and a big rivalry. So, we’d like to be ready to go and have a better night.”

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