With training camp on the horizon, we’re taking a look ahead at the 2024-25 NHL calendar to highlight matchups to watch this coming season.
Any season-opener is must-watch for hockey-starved fans, but that feeling will be multiplied on Oct. 8, when the Boston Bruins will kick off their 2024-25 campaign against the team that ended each of their past two seasons: the Florida Panthers.
Not only that, but the Panthers will be raising their championship banner after winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, which will add even more juice to the matchup.
Beyond that, here are a few other games in the first month of the season that Bruins fans will want to circle on their calendars.
Oct. 10 vs. Montreal Canadiens
We covered the season-opener, but the home opener will also be intriguing. After facing a recent rival that has just reached the pinnacle of the hockey world, the Bruins will return to TD Garden to host one of their oldest rivals that’s trying to build back into relevancy.
The last time the two sides met, Jake DeBrusk scored the overtime winner in Boston’s 2-1 victory on March 14 to secure a 3-0-1 record against the Habs in their season series. The Bruins will look to continue that dominance with the early-season meeting.
The Canadiens didn’t make a big splash in free agency, but they locked down former No. 1 overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to an eight-year, $60.8 million extension. Montreal is hoping Slafkovsky and the rest of its young core can take the steps forward needed to become a competitive team, and this matchup against Boston will be an early test for the group.
Oct. 19 @ Utah Hockey Club
There isn’t any bad blood with these clubs, but it will mark the first time the Bruins face the NHL’s newest team.
The matchup comes in the middle of Boston’s first road trip of the season, which will be a brief swing into the Mountain Time Zone to face Colorado and Utah before stopping in Nashville on the way back.
Oct. 26 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Boston continued their playoff dominance against the Maple Leafs in 2024, defeating their Atlantic Division rival in the First Round, but it came down to the wire. After letting a 3-1 series lead slip to Game 7, it was David Pastrnak’s overtime winner that gave Boston the edge to advance to the next round.
This will mark the first matchup between the teams since then, and Toronto will come back to Boston with a new coach, Craig Berube, in what will be a critical season for its ‘Core Four’ of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander.
Just one month into the season, and there will be no shortage of tense rematches with division rivals.
