3 Stars: Bruins get to their ideal identity vs. Hurricanes

The Bruins, at one point losers of six straight, are back to .500.

Of course, Marco Sturm has greater ambitions for his club than a mere .500 record, but there's no complaining about winning and drawing back even.

"That was really good," Sturm said following the 2-1 win at TD Garden. "We needed to play that way against a team like that. We wanted to have a good start [and] we wanted to slow them down.”

And to Sturm's point, this absolutely felt like the version of the Bruins that they want to be (and perhaps have to be) to have success in 2025-26. The checking was fantastic, the defense was tight, and when all else failed, the goaltending was there to save the day or just slow things down.

With the win, the Bruins extended their streak to three straight games, and have now captured wins in four of five since ending their six-game slide.

Here's a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game...

Don't look now, but the Bruins' second line is beginning to develop some chemistry. And Viktor Arvidsson, who scored what was the game-winning goal in this contest, is starting to get some on-the-board results.

With the goal, Arvidsson is up to three goals in his last five games, and has six points on the season overall. But what you liked about that Arvidsson goal goes beyond just the tally. In the moments leading up to that goal, Arvidsson had a great defensive-zone cutdown on the Hurricanes' Alexander Nikishin. That sent what could've been a quality shot on goal wide of the net, and got the Hurricanes spinning and ultimately too aggressive, and ultimately allowed Arvidsson to cheat a little bit and put himself in a great spot for a partial break.

Sturm has called Arvidsson a 'little weasel' out there, and he means it in the most endearing way, of course. But man, is it annoying for the opposition.

On Thursday night, Jeremy Swayman found himself benched for the second straight game. It was the first time that had happened to Swayman since the team traded Linus Ullmark in 2024. Whether it was the Bruins simply riding the hot-handed Joonas Korpisalo or trying to push Swayman's buttons a little bit, only Sturm can answer. But if it was the latter, it certainly seemed to work, as Swayman turned in a strong 28-of-29 performance in the victory.

"Every day is motivating when you're losing," Swayman said after the win. "And not getting the results you want, it's a huge motivator. And when you're winning it's the same thing, you're addicted to winning."

With the Bruins struggling to find their footing offensively early, Swayman had to be strong out of the gate (and was), with a point-blank save on Jackson Blake coming as the highlight of his opening frame. Swayman remained perfect in the second frame, too, with stops on all nine shots faced.

Overall, it took a 6-on-5 for Carolina to beat Swayman in this game, while the 26-year-old stopped all five high-danger shots faced (per NaturalStatTrick).

"I know what I need to do to help this team win games," said Swayman.

To be completely honest, you can just tell when Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is feeling it. And on Saturday, No. 73 in black was certainly feeling it, with a three-zone effort that reminds you just how good he can be.

On the attack, McAvoy jumped into the attack and helped create Boston's first goal with a great 2-on-1 feed to Casey Mittelstadt, and then had the secondary helper on the Arvidsson goal that made it 2-0. Even in his own zone, McAvoy displayed some excellent patience with the Bruins up by two in the third, as he was willing to hold the puck behind his net for a full 16 seconds while looking for the best possible breakout look for the Bruins.

And without the puck, McAvoy had one of his steadiest defensive-zone games yet this season, and finished with two hits and three blocks. And playing to the right of Nikita Zadorov, the Bruins allowed just one high-danger chat in over 17 minutes of five-on-five time with those two on the guy together.

“They’re playing against the top players every night and they’re just playing it simple," Sturm said of the Zadorov-McAvoy pairing. "Sometimes, both of them want to do extra and want to do something special because they want to get the guys going. Just concentrate on your own game, shutting those top players down. That’s all I want, and that’s what they’re doing right now.”