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The two factors lacking most for the Bruins last season, when they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016, were scoring (specifically, the power play) and attitude. Too often, as general manager Don Sweeney noted in the weeks that followed, his club became “an easy out.”

Sweeney and team president Cam Neely addressed that soft spot with free-agent forwards Tanner Jeannot and Mikey Eyssimont. Sturm will be counting on their proven feistiness quotient as a needed spark, in hopes their attitude is contagious. One or two guys certainly can help set the tone, but it’s best, and most effective, when all lines and defense pairings buy into the make-the-opposition-miserable mantra.

“We’re going to have a lot of new faces in the room again this year,” noted Nikita Zadorov, back for a second season on the blue line, “and we want to get a mojo going and a chemistry going — and we’ll see from there. The main goal is to get back to the playoffs and show this city and the fans what we can do.”

As for the power play, the Bruins converted with a meager 15.2 percent efficiency (29th in the league) last season. They put the puck in the net only 35 times on the man advantage, while surrendering 56 PPGs. (Only three clubs yielded more.) The struggle was a constant throughout the season, barely changing even after the March 7 roster purge.

If Sturm and new assistant coach Steve Spott can wring, say, another 10-12 power-play goals out of the lineup, and tighten up by another 10-12 on the other side, it would ostensibly wipe out that -21 differential and in turn could wipe out a DNQ repeat. Simple math, yes, but it’s not a complicated game, though it looks like quantum physics when you’re not scoring.

About a month from the Oct. 8 season opener, it remains a mystery how Sturm, in his first kicks as an NHL bench boss, will shape his game plan and define individual roles.

“We will see in a couple of weeks,” acknowledged Zadorov, who arrived last season with Jim Montgomery as coach and finished with Joe Sacco as interim bench boss designated for assignment. “We haven’t really spoken about how we want to play yet — I guess we just have to wait for Marco to come in here and tell us.”

Zadorov, referring to his new coach’s “résumé,” found it intriguing and encouraging that Sturm spent his early NHL playing years under the tutelage of the straight-shooting Darryl Sutter in San Jose. After playing seven seasons in the NHL, Zadorov in July 2021 was traded from Colorado to Calgary, where Sutter was his coach for the next two seasons.

“Darryl Sutter was the favorite coach I ever had in my life, so I feel like we have a lot of mutual interests in that,” said Zadorov. “I like old school coaches. I like direct coaches. I like hard coaches. I’m not afraid to take heat from them when I deserve it, as long as you tell it to my face and be fair with me and give me what I deserve.”

Sutter, 67, was dismissed by the Flames after the 2022-23 season. Former Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, a Blackhawks rookie when Sutter directed the Chicago bench, many times expressed his appreciation for Sutter’s unvarnished approach, some of which influenced the style of the now-Vegas coach. Cassidy’s hard truths with the Bruins’ rank-and-file stick carriers indeed played a part in his abrupt dismissal early in the summer ′22 offseason.

“I think I still was young and inexperienced a little bit,” said Zadorov, asked if it took time to adapt to Sutter’s ways. “I think Darryl changed my career and changed my life a little bit, in a good way. Now, looking back, it was a really hard time for me, but I am glad it happened to me. I wouldn’t be here, where I’m at right now, without that, for sure.”

A rested and fit Charlie McAvoy, feeling the best he has “in years” after some six months of rehabbing a February shoulder injury and infection, said he has “the full faith and trust that the coaches will put us in the best position to play [Sturm’s] style.”

The club’s franchise blue liner, spoke only briefly with Sturm this summer.

“He was great to talk to,” said McAvoy. “He’s really excited, I think, with something to prove as a first-time coach, and we have a lot to prove as a team here, getting back to our standard of being a playoff hockey team. We’re all hungry.”

Even with an average of 48 goals the last four seasons as one of the game’s premier strikers, the 29-year-old Pastrnak figures a new coach will mean everyone will have to adapt, including himself.

“We all have to adapt, right? In life and in professional sports,” said Pastrnak. “No different for me. It might be a new style. It might be a new D zone system. You never know. You have to adapt … if you sit still, your train’s going to go away. That’s not just in this sport, but in life as well.”

Nikita Zadorov will be skating for his third coach since joining the Bruins prior to last season.Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe

‘Never Forget’

9/11 remembrance hits home

Early Thursday morning, 24 years after the horror of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the hockey community will have three strong voices as part of the annual remembrance held at the State House.

Ex-NHLers Bob Sweeney, nearly two decades into his tenure as executive director of the Boston Bruins Foundation, will be the day’s keynote speaker.

Sweeney, 61, is scheduled to be joined by Marty Walsh, Boston’s former mayor and the executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, and Patrick Bavis, whose brother, Mark, then a scout for the Kings, was among the passengers who perished when United Flight 175 was hijacked on its way to Los Angeles and flown into the South Tower at the World Trade Center.

“Hard to believe, 24 years, and every year the families go to the State House chambers,” mused Sweeney, whose sister-in-law, Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the North Tower. ”It brings it back all over again.”

To this day, Massachusetts presents the Madeline “Amy” Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery. The courageous Sweeney was on the phone to airline ground personnel, relaying critical information about the hijacking and the terrorists, in the moments leading to the airliner’s crash into the tower.

Twins Mark and Mike Bavis grew up in Roslindale and played together at Boston University for Jack Parker. Following a brief coaching career, Mark transitioned to an amateur scouting role with the Kings. He and Kings director of pro scouting Ace Bailey, the gregarious ex-Bruins forward, were headed to training camp the morning of the fateful crash.

Walsh last year married longtime partner Lorrie Higgins, whose cousin, Susan MacKay, was among those killed on 9/11.

Mike Bavis will be at the State house for Patrick’s speech, joined by siblings Kathy (Sylvester), Mary Ellen (Moran), Kelly (Morrissey) and John. The full Bavis contingent will be upward of 20 on a day, Mike noted, when community and shared experience take on special meaning.

“It’s mixed emotions, because it’s still hard, it really is,” he said. “But on the flipside, we see so many people who we have a special bond with … people who helped us and, hopefully, we helped them get through the days, months, and years. There’s an uplifting side of that — in the sense of understanding, bonding and just probably being close enough to people who know exactly what you felt then, you felt again a month later, a year later, 10 years later. They understand.”

The Mark Bavis Leadership Foundation annually awards scholarships to graduating Massachusetts high school seniors. According to Mike, the fund has awarded in excess of $1 million, shared by some 200 students.

“We look to seek out kids who’ve made great contributions to their schools, their communities and, in some cases, around the world,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate to have some amazing kids who’ve done great things.”

For family members and friends of the victims, there can be no truly getting over 9/11 — something underscored for Bob Sweeney early on when he was asked how his brother, Mike, was doing after Amy perished. Their two children, Jack and Anna, were preschoolers at the time.

“I’d say, ‘You know, he’s doing OK,’ but I paused, and said, ‘You know what? I really can’t answer that because I don’t know what he’s doing from 10:30 to 6:30 every night … is he able to sleep?’ Obviously, some nights he didn’t,” recalled Sweeney. “It takes so long to move on, and on that particular day, it brings back 24 years all over again because of the significance of the day and the impact of when everybody gathers in Boston, or New York, or wherever, it comes back and it is still very raw.”

It’s the perseverance and dedication to their lost loved ones, said Sweeney, that he focuses on and finds uplifting.

“It’s refreshing to look at what people have done with such a horrific situation they were dealt with in 2001,” he said. “Look at all the non-profits established, whether it’s the Ace Bailey Foundation, the Bavis Foundation, the Jeff Coombs Foundation … and then to see the younger kids, like my niece and nephew who were four and five at the time … to see how they’ve grown and become young adults and carried on the memory of the loved ones lost. That’s what I think is important to recognize.

“The saying is, ‘Never Forget.’ And we will never forget, but I also think it’s gratifying to see some positives out of that horrific day, based on what the kids have done and what the families have done to honor their loved ones.”

Matt Grzelcyk first appeared in the NHL with the Bruins during the 2016-17 season.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Waiting game

Grzelcyk has a plan but not a team

Per his new agent, Sean Coffey, ex-Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk is deciding whether it’s best to report to an NHL club under a professional tryout contract or find a suitor after the first weeks of the 2025-26 schedule shake out.

Grzelcyk’s lifelong pal, former Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey, opted for a different path after nine NHL seasons and six clubs. The 2016 Hobey Baker Award winner last month signed a two-year deal with Geneve-Servette in Switzerland’s top pro league.

Across the ocean, said Coffey, is not where Grzelcyk, 31, is looking to set sail.

“I still think he has at least four more good years of NHL mileage left, because of how he takes care of himself,” noted Coffey. “Hopefully, in a couple of months time, he looks back at this as just a blip on the radar.”

Last summer, Grzelcyk, an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, signed a one-year deal ($2.75 million) with the Penguins after seven seasons wearing the Spoked-B. He put up career-best numbers in assists and points (1-39–40) with the flightless birds, and from here it looked like a sure bet he would follow coaches Mike Sullivan and David Quinn from the Penguins to the Rangers.

Such are the vagaries of NHL roster construction and, in turn, careers. Thirty-two NHL clubs are about to open camp, but none deems the shifty, smart Grzelcyk a fit for the moment. From his side, at this stage of his career (and some $22 million in earnings), it’s about current fit and how best to project, say, a four-year plan.

“He understands the marketplace dried up on him a little bit,” said Coffey. “Especially for a defenseman and the way he plays, fit is really important. But I think he is confident with the year that he had, taking a ‘prove-it’ contract [with Pittsburgh], we think he hit a home run on a bad team.”

The PTO route, in theory, would allow Grzelcyk to keep his legs fresh and up to NHL pace, and offer a pathway to a contract — be it with that club or another team watching him in preseason game action. Sitting out and assessing how the market develops can work, but it also comes with an out-of-sight-out-of-mind caveat.

“I think we definitely remain confident that maybe it’s not 32 teams, but there’s plenty of teams that could use an established puck-moving, power-play guy who’s played nearly 600 games and isn’t old,” said Coffey.

Loose pucks

In part because he figures it’s not wise to run as much in the offseason as he did in his young 20s, Pastrnak augmented his workouts this summer with trail biking. “I found it kind of exciting,” he said. “It gets your quads stronger, I guess, and gets your mind away. For me, I am used to biking in the gym and staring down at the carpet. So it was nice to have some nature around me.” Pastrnak trained part of the summer in Sweden, joining in practices with old pals William and Alex Nylander. Their dad, former Bruins forward Michael Nylander, ran the workouts … Defenseman Hampus Lindholm, who flew in from Sweden on Thursday, said he frequently surfed this summer as a means to strengthen his legs, knees, and core muscles. He spends the offseason in a fishing village not far from Helsingborg, where he grew up. “I can see Denmark across the water,” said Lindholm, noting the other country is only a 20-minute ferry ride away. “I joke with my fiancée, if she ever misses home, she can wake up and wave and see her home country on the other side.” … Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson, who appeared as two of the legendary “Hanson brothers” in the epic 1977 hockey flick, “Slap Shot,” will be signing autographs Sunday (noon-2 p.m.) at “Sportsworld” in Saugus. By the end of the day, we finally hope to solve one of hockey’s greatest mysteries — who own da Chiefs?

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.