The Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 in their final preseason game on Thursday. Now the final roster is starting to come together. Here's whose stock went up and went down:
The Boston Bruins closed out their preseason slate with a 3-1 win against the New York Rangers on Thursday night. They finish the preseason 2-2-2, but more important than the results are the performances of the individual players.
For the final time this preseason, before the opening night roster is revealed, here’s whose stock went up and went down with Thursday night’s game:
Stock Up: Frederic-Poitras-Geekie line
Assuming Matt Poitras makes the Bruins roster and gets at least nine games to test his true NHL-readiness, it could be centering Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie on the third line.
The line combination looked brutal through two periods. In a game without many shots for either side, that line was outshot 3-0 and out-chanced 2-0 with a 5-on-5 Corsi For Percentage of 0.00 (0-7).
Then, Frederic found Poitras for the go-ahead goal just 1:13 into the third period. Their line did not put any more shots on net after that, but they also didn’t allow any. Clearly they took awhile to get going, and they weren’t even great after the goal, but they made a big play when it mattered and set the tone for the rest of the third period.
“I feel like it just got better as it went on, and I feel good about my game,” Poitras said.
“‘Freddy’ and ‘Geeks’ did a good job of getting pucks down low, and I just kind of tried to find a quiet area, and ‘Freddy’ got it to me, and I don’t know, I just put it far side because it was an open net.”
Geekie and Frederic have been playing together to establish chemistry all camp long, and they always seemed like locks for third line roles. After scoring five points in five preseason games, Poitras has seemingly locked in a spot, regardless of where in the lineup it may be.
“It certainly looks that way,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “He’s earned the right to stick around for awhile, that’s for sure.”
Stock Down: Derek Forbort
Montgomery said Forbort was dealing with a lower-body injury in camp, which prevented him from getting preseason game action until Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Capitals.
Perhaps he’s not 100 percent, but Montgomery also said they were cautious with his return and didn’t want to rush him along. If that’s the case, then it’s concerning. The Rangers had seven scoring chances compared to one from the Bruins with Forbort on the ice at 5-on-5.
Neither Forbort nor Kevin Shattenkirk, the expected third pair, have had good preseason performances. Maybe as veterans expected to make the roster, they didn’t try as hard at this stage. Forbort seemed slow to pucks and failed to make strong clearances, and if that play carries over to the regular season, Mason Lohrei could get a promotion much sooner than expected.
“We got five days of practice here now,” Montgomery said. “We’re really gonna hone in on special teams and sharpening the details within our game.”
Stock Up: Charlie Coyle
Coyle was never in a roster battle, and he’s pretty much certain to hold down one of the top two center spots. Well, he was until Poitras emerged this preseason. The 19-year-old would probably benefit from playing with more offensively skilled wingers, despite what was written above. That could mean Coyle gets ‘demoted’ back to a third line role.
It could just be for nine games until Poitras gets sent back to the OHL, but if Poitras sticks around, Coyle at least showed he could hold his own, especially on the power play, where he started to get infused this offseason.
“I don’t mind being around the net like that,” Coyle said. “That’s probably where I’m most comfortable if you’re picking your spot on the power play. I just try to create my space there.”
His size and strength is an asset on the man advantage, which was exemplified by his goal on Thursday. No matter which line he starts the season on, the 31-year-old proved he can add value in an expanded role, which is exactly what the Bruins wanted to see.
Stock Down: Ian Mitchell
Forbort’s defensive pair partner, Mitchell had an impressive camp but fell a bit flat on Thursday. The Bruins allowed more shots (9) with Mitchell on the ice at 5-on-5 than when anyone else was on, and he barely had a positive impact on either end with no shots, hits or blocked shots.
He appears to be in a two-horse race with Jakub Zboril for the seventh defenseman spot, and while his appearance in the lineup alongside Forbort was a good sign, he did not make the most of his opportunity.
It could mean the Bruins decide to send him down to AHL Providence for more seasoning, but at 24 years old with some NHL experience under his belt already, the bigger minutes in Providence would likely go to younger, higher potential prospects anyway. His performance in previous games was good enough to put him in the roster conversation. Now we’ll see if Thursday’s performance was enough to take him out of it.
Stock Up: AJ Greer
Greer was always fighting for a roster spot, and that fight never stopped. Even ignoring the empty-net goal, which was a cherry on top, Greer brought his trademark aggression to every situation.
He forechecked with energy, made crucial clearances on the penalty kill and even drew a tripping penalty after making a slick toe drag move on the way to the net at 10:44 of the second period. That sequence set up the power play opportunity that would allow the Bruins to cash in the tying goal.
“That was the best team game we played,” Montgomery said. “You could see it in the first period that we were starting to play to our identity– what I believe is our identity. We were playing faster, possessing pucks, weren’t spending as much time in our own end.”
Greer's track record is large enough that the Bruins know who he is and what he can bring. Milan Lucic was a lock for the fourth-line left winger from the moment he signed in July, but given his age and the amount of minutes he can provide each night – or lack thereof – that 13th forward will probably get a decent number of games.
With the way Greer plays and what he can bring to the fourth line on a rotational basis, he seems like a good fit for that 13th forward spot. Will he ultimately unseat Jesper Boqvist or PTO candidate Danton Heinen, among others? We’ll find out soon enough, but at the very least, Greer made the decision tougher.