Marco Sturm Reflects On First Season as Bruins Head Coach, Talks Potential Changes in Offseason
Two days after the Boston Bruins’ 2025-26 campaign came to a close, head coach Marco Sturm spoke to the media for Breakup Day.
During the press conference on Sunday morning, he reflected on this past season and talked about potential things that can be changed this offseason whether that be techniques or personnel.
“I have to look at it first,” said Sturm. “Areas where we can get better or have to get better for sure. I'm not going to change the whole system, no. I think the foundation is set now. I believe [in] what we do and what I try to teach here. Having said that, there will be areas we probably going to change some things, but I need more time. I need more time to look at some video and stuff like that.
“And yeah, to part of your question, is it personal? Yeah, it's part of it,” said Sturm. “I think [a] few guys had fitted more to the system we played than maybe some others and more other guys needed more time. So there's a little bit of combination for sure.”
One of the potential changes asked about was having a captain on the team.
“I always said I wanted a cap, but now being through that first time, me as a head coach not having a captain, and I thought it went really well,” said Sturm. “Maybe because guys were very close. The leadership group, I thought they did a good job overall. Everyone had their input. There was no outsider. We always kept it really tight. So I actually didn't mind it. But having said that, that will be more conversation to have with Don [Sweeney], how we [are] going to move forward. But personally, I liked how we handled and especially the players how they handled the situation all year long.”
Sturm continued to emphasize that player improvement is a focus, but also how important it was to get that playoff experience to get better.
“Yeah, you got to find ways or maybe we can help our D to have a little bit more time,” said Sturm. “Could be on a rush, could be in a neutral zone forecheck, could be that. So that's something I just have to look and dig deeper. I think right now I have a good idea, but again I got to see it more. And again, I almost give you the same answer. It's some guys need to get better too. Breaking pucks under pressure. I think there's guys [who] didn't value it first how important it is. And that's why I'm going back to playing playoff games because you could tell how important it is. And we needed the first touch. We needed a lot of things to get that puck. And if you don't or you end up in your own zone or it ends up in the net. So that's how important it is. So I think overall it was an eye opener for a lot of guys on our team, but also my job is to get better at [it].”
Sturm also shared what he took away in his first year at the helm for the Bruins and how he wants to progress going into Year 2.
“The one thing I learned over the past coaching is we got to start from scratch again,” said Sturm. “And that, for me, goes back to zero, back to our Day 1 training camp. It's going to be very, very similar. Training camp will be shorter… We will probably tweak a few things systemwise, but other than that, it's a new season again so there's nothing. We got to earn our identity again. We got to start from scratch and we got to build something again… Because I see a lot of teams who were not in the playoffs this year, they will be back in the picture. So, you just can't rest in this league. So that's going to be the challenge. Expectation will be higher. We're not going to be the surprise team anymore. So we all know. So that's why it's going to be very important how we come out of the gate. And that for me it’s training camp. It's going to start already.”
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Kim Rankin is one of the lead writers for Boston Bruins on SI and Boston College On SI. A 2020 graduate of the University of Alabama. she joined Alabama Crimson Tide On SI in February 2024 covering baseball, softball, football, men’s basketball, and more for BamaCentral, but has also contributed to Missouri Tigers On SI. She previously worked as the brand manager at Tide 100.9 FM in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She has covered a wide variety of events including SEC Championships, NCAA Regionals, and bowl games.