The Boston Bruins have been one of the NHL’s best teams for the past decade, consistently ranking high in the Atlantic Division and NHL standings. Whenever they have to take a step back, they find a way to come back stronger and keep winning.

The long-awaited step back may have finally arrived, and some of the flaws in this squad are starting to show at the start of the season.

With a 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, the Bruins fell to 3-4-1 in their first seven games. More about the record is the way it plays.

The defense was very ordinary, the goaltending wasn’t as good as in years past, and the offense is taking a huge step backwards and is among the worst in the NHL.

Let’s start with defense and goaltending, because the Bruins’ calling card over the last 10-15 years has always been their defensive approach and excellent goaltending. There were already some cracks in the defensive foundation in the 2023-24 season as they were consistently among the worst teams in the league when it came to scoring chances and expected goals.

What saved them was Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, one of the league’s best goaltender duos.

So far this season, the Bruins are just as mediocre defensively as they were a year ago, with little change in their metrics. Allows the 22nd most anticipated goal and 15th most risky scoring chances per 60 minutes.

The problem is that Ullmark is currently playing in Ottawa due to an off-season trade, and Swayman has yet to reach the level of play he showed in his first three years. Goaltending doesn’t save the defense in the same way and more pucks end up in the back of the net.

If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Swayman has to step back at some point and be able to help guard the defense in front of him.

The biggest concern is with the team’s offense, which is very weak due to some discouraging signs of what could happen the rest of the season. After Thursday’s game, they were averaging just 2.8 goals per game, which put them in the bottom 10 in the NHL. But even more discouraging is that they are one of the worst teams in the league in terms of creating shots and creating chances. Especially during 5v5 play.

Following Thursday’s game, they ranked 29th in the NHL in shots per 60 minutes, 28th in expected goals per 60 minutes, 29th in scoring chances per 60 minutes, and 29th in high-risk scoring chances per 60 minutes (All numbers with Natural Stat Trick). The biggest part of consistently scoring goals is creating chances. If you can’t create chances, you can’t keep scoring goals.

The Bruins don’t have a true No. 1 center and don’t have many great finishes outside of David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. All of these issues will add up and potentially put the Bruins in a situation where they will have to face much tougher competition for the playoffs than they anticipated.