The Boston Bruins put together a dominant display in their first preseason game of the year, defeating the New York Rangers 3-0. In a lineup that was primarily filled with players on the roster bubble looking to force their way onto the team, several stood out and started to build their case, while a couple others left a little to be desired.
BOSTON – A single preseason game isn’t going to make or break anyone’s standing in the organizational depth chart, but here’s whose stock went up and went down after Sunday night’s game:
Stock Up: The Centers
Two of the Bruins top center prospects put together big performances, with Matt Poitras scoring a goal and an assist and Johnny Beecher dominating in the face-off dot (7/11) and adding a slick goal to boot.
There’s still five preseason games and plenty of training camp practices remaining, but both Poitras and Beecher made themselves worthy of further attention. With Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle poised to be the top two centers, and free agent acquisition Morgan Geekie on the inside track for the 3C, the fourth-line center spot is the only one that really feels up for grabs.
Poitras certainly benefited from skating with two full-time NHLers on his wings in James van Riemsdyk and Jake DeBrusk. His offensive skill set shined through, and he looked engaged defensively and on the forecheck.
“They [van Riemsdyk and DeBrusk] really helped me with my confidence level going into the game, settled my nerves,” Poitras said. “Just keep things simple. When you have a puck along the wall at the blue line, just chip it out. Live to fight another day. It’s not always a play to be made.”
Beecher, meanwhile, spent the first couple days of training camp with Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko on his wings – a combination that has a pretty good shot to be the fourth line on opening night – and Montgomery emphasized the need for a left-shot center that can help win face-offs earlier this week.
Beecher knows the draws and a physical two-way game will be key to getting an NHL spot.
“If you’re gonna play one of those bottom six roles, you really kinda want to use a lot of speed and a lot of physicality to kind of put their defense on their heels a little bit,” Beecher said. “Getting a full year of pro under my belt [in the AHL], I think it definitely made me more comfortable out there.”
It should be noted that the other centers raked in the face-offs across the board, with Geekie (5/8), Patrick Brown (4/4), Jayson Megna (9/15) and even winger Trent Frederic (4/6) dominating on the dot.
“Tremendous on face-offs,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of his center rotation. “Individually, happy with all their games. We already talked about the two young guys. Megna was really good on draws. Geekie, I think as a veteran, they kinda pick their spots where they want to play sometimes. That’s just the nature of them getting in a rhythm to get ready for the regular season.”
Stock Down: Fabian Lysell
Montgomery mentioned Lysell was struggling defensively in training camp earlier this week, and the 2021 first-rounder had an inconsistent showing on Sunday.
He made a hard push up the ice on the forecheck in the second period, nearly causing a Jonathan Quick miscue that would have left the Rangers net vulnerable, but he also misplayed a puck that led to a big Rangers chance on the other end. Add in a tripping penalty early in the third period, and you have a night of mixed results.
That said, Montgomery said he liked how Lysell’s play progressed throughout the night.
“I thought he showed really good speed. I thought his best period was the third period,” Montgomery said. “The second period we killed and he didn’t kill tonight, but the third period, I thought he showed a lot of poise. A lot of attacking in the middle of the ice.”
It’s easy to nitpick one performance, and the jury is still out for everyone, but on a night where several of his peers delivered memorable performances, Lysell was more or less forgettable.
Stock Up: Brandon Bussi
We went in-depth on Bussi’s night already, so we’ll keep it brief here.
Posting a 29-save shutout, Bussi was a monster in net for the Bruins. No one will unseat Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman in Boston’s goalie rotation, but if either is forced to miss time for any reason, Bussi took a big step forward in cementing his status as the No. 3 goalie in the organizational depth chart.
“I just came into training camp preparing for the first game of the season, to be the best I can be,” Bussi said. “That’s all I can control.”
There were the incredible highlight reel saves, but he also played a sound game positionally for all 60 minutes, making the routine stops as well.
“We started the year [last season] and they [AHL Providence] weren’t sure what they had,” Montgomery said. “Every time he went in nets, he kept making saves and saves and stole a lot of games last year for them down there.”
“He’s a late bloomer, and he just keeps getting better.”
Stock Down: Brett Harrison
In such a dominant win, there weren’t a lot of negatives, but the Rangers tended to tip the ice when Harrison was on. He was tied for the second-worst Corsi For Percentage at 5-on-5 (9-18, 33.3%) among Bruins players – behind only Geekie (7-16, 30.43%) – and he didn’t get much time on special teams to make a stand-out play, getting just 55 seconds total on the penalty kill and zero power play time.
He did record a hit and blocked two shots, so he wasn’t invisible, but just like Lysell’s case, he got outshined.
Stock Up: Parker Wotherspoon
All the defensemen fared pretty well across the board, as one would expect during a shutout, and Alec Regula in particular had a nice goal-saving play in the first period, but Wotherspoon quietly had an impactful game on the back end.
He was one of the few players with a giveaway, but he also recorded a takeaway and threw his body around for three hits. He also got a long look on the penalty kill (3:36 TOI). At 26, he’s on the older side for players looking to break onto the NHL roster.
He has 12 career NHL games under his belt after spending eight years in the New York Islanders organization, all of which came last season, so a roster spot is a long shot, but after last night, he at least made a case for a big role in Providence.