The Boston Bruins took a step back in their second preseason game of the year, losing 4-1 to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday. 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 Tuesday night’s game:
While the Buffalo Sabres skated a handful of their stars, including Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, the Boston Bruins skated 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.
Stock Up: Mason Lohrei
Lohrei played a whopping 29:01, while the next-highest ice time went to Ian Mitchell at 19:38. Lohrei had plenty of time to showcase his abilities against a lineup full of regular NHLers, and he didn’t disappoint.
The 2020 second-round pick put two shots on goal, including one in the final minutes of the game that Oskar Steen rebounded for the Bruins’ only goal. With the exception of a giveaway at 16:57 of the second, Lohrei did fairly well playing with the puck.
“[I] feel good,” Lohrei told NESN’s Adam Pellerin during the first intermission. “Just trying to keep it simple. Play to the systems and make plays when I can.”
The Bruins allowed just one high-danger scoring chance while Lohrei was on the ice, compared to creating four with him, according to Natural Stat Trick. Overall, the Bruins had more opportunities on the offensive end with Lohrei on the ice, which is impressive considering it was a 4-1 loss and he was on the ice for half the game.
Montgomery’s comments after the pregame skate on Tuesday morning hinted Lohrei is headed for a full season in the AHL rather than making the NHL roster (which was expected), but showing promise in the preseason is exactly what the Bruins want to see.
“I think the benefit of him going to play in Providence and getting a lot of games and getting used to our system, he seems to be very comfortable now this year,” Montgomery said about Lohrei, who played just five games in Providence last year after finishing his NCAA career at Ohio State.
Stock Down: Ryan Mast
His holding penalty at 3:03 of the first put the Bruins short-handed before the Sabres took an early 1-0 lead, and the Sabres second goal appeared to deflect off of him en route to the net.
Not ideal. Obviously, penalties and bad deflections happen to everyone, but the rest of Mast’s game involved a lot of action from Buffalo. Boston had just three shots when he was on the ice compared to facing nine shots against, according to Natural Stat Trick. Those nine shots against included four high-danger scoring chances, which was tied for second-most allowed on the team.
The Bruins defensive core is established, with the seventh defenseman being the only real opening on the roster, but Mast didn’t do himself any favors in keeping himself in that conversation.
Stock Up: Ian Mitchell
Speaking of the conversation for the seventh defenseman, enter Ian Mitchell. One of the returning pieces in the Taylor Hall/Nick Foligno trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, Mitchell didn’t get as much shine after Lohrei’s night, but he deserves equal praise.
The 24-year-old defenseman got involved jumping into the offensive zone while also limiting chances in his own end. The Bruins held an 11-9 edge in scoring chances with Mitchell on the ice.
Mitchell himself put three shots on goal, and had five more attempts blocked, which caught Montgomery’s eye.
“I thought that Mitchell and Grzelcyk did a lot of good things in the offensive zone as defensemen, keeping pucks alive,” Montgomery told NESN after the game.
While Lohrei seems to be heading down to the AHL for more seasoning, Mitchell has a great opportunity to parlay this performance into a fringe roster spot at the very least.
Stock Down: Danton Heinen
Despite being one of the more experienced players in the lineup on Tuesday, Heinen was among the players facing the most pressure as he’s playing under a Professional Tryout Agreement (PTO).
In limited ice time (13:14, second-lowest on the team), Heinen had the sixth-worst Corsi For Percentage (46.67%) and had a minus-2 rating. He started to get more involved in the third period, where he took all three of his shots on goal, but it was an underwhelming night for the former Bruins fourth-rounder looking to earn a second stint in Boston.
“Obviously in your first game, you’re trying to get your legs under you, your time under you, but it’s fun to be back out there,” Heinen told reporters after the game.
“There’s a lot of areas to clean up, but first one’s under the belt. Just try to build.”
Stock Up: Marc McLaughlin
McLaughlin had a great camp in 2022, but still got sent down to Providence. In his first game of the 2023 preseason, he’s trying to leave Boston with no choice but to keep him up.
Buffalo goalies Devon Levi and Devin Cooley held the Bruins at bay, preventing the offensive outburst we saw at TD Garden on Sunday against the New York Rangers, but McLaughlin still made his impact apparent.
He was all over the ice on his first shift, delivering a hit to Buffalo defenseman Joseph Cecconi just 53 seconds into the game. He continued to play aggressively at both ends of the ice, which did lead to a tripping penalty at 3:27 in the third period, but largely resulted in more action in the Bruins offensive zone than the Sabres. His 66.67 5v5 Corsi For Percentage was second on the team behind defenseman Frederic Brunet (70.00%).
After great games by Matt Poitras and Johnny Beecher on Sunday, with the latter also putting together a solid performance on Tuesday, McLaughlin didn’t make the bottom six battle any simpler for Bruins general manager Don Sweeney.