Youth Movement Stalled: What Late-Game Benchings Mean For Bruins Youth
Mason Lohrei, Johnny Beecher and Georgii Merkulov had uninspiring outings with little playing time in the Boston Bruins' 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports - Youth Movement Stalled: What Late-Game Benchings Mean For Bruins YouthBOSTON – From the beginning of the season, Boston Bruins management made it clear that the young players trying to break onto the NHL roster would have to earn their spot, not get it handed to them. While Matt Poitras (19 years old), Johnny Beecher (22) and Mason Lohrei (22) have all more or less earned consistent roles in Boston, that only makes up half the battle.
While rebuilding teams can afford to let their youth grow and make mistakes on the ice, the Bruins – who sit atop the Atlantic Division standings with 52 points – cannot afford to do that. The need to close out tight games down the stretch often means sacrificing ice time for younger players in lieu of the experienced veterans who are trusted to get the job done.
This has happened all season for the Bruins, but never as evident as Thursday’s 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in which Boston trailed 5-2 at 6:38 of the second period before tying it 5-5 early in the third. Sidney Crosby’s late power-play goal, his third point of the night, ended up making the difference.
“We competed all the way to the end,” said Brad Marchand, whose short-handed goal tied it at 3:08 of the third. “But obviously some plays we gotta clean up, some things we can be better at. To work that hard to get yourself back in the game, and we just made some mistakes that we probably shouldn’t [have] that late in the game.”
Lohrei (8:29), Beecher (6:10) and 23-year-old Georgii Merkulov (6:23) all played sparingly. Fellow fourth-liner Oskar Steen, 25, only played 6:45. Beecher and Merkulov did not take a shift after the 9:16 mark of the third period. Lohrei’s night was done at 7:49. With the game tied 5-5 at that point and Boston fighting to take the lead, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery leaned entirely on the veterans to make it happen, and for good reason.
Lohrei ended the night with a minus-three rating in a game littered with mistakes that led to risky turnovers. The Beecher-Merkulov-Steen fourth line was abysmal at 5-on-5, getting outshot 5-0 and posting a Corsi For Percentage of 0.00 (0-7).
“We didn’t end plays in the D-zone when they went behind our net. That’s where it starts,” Montgomery said, speaking on the team as a whole. “And then our defensemen didn’t get back to our net quick enough.”
Poitras is still working his way back after returning from the IIHF World Junior Championships, where Team Canada was surprisingly knocked out in the quarterfinals. Bruins management confirmed his spot on the team would be safe whenever the rookie center returned, but he would also get shortened ice time and third-period benchings before he left.
As for the rest of the young players, we could be seeing demotions to AHL Providence as we get later into the season. If the Bruins’ youth can prove they can be trusted in late-game situations, they’ll earn the ice time. And with few assets to move at the trade deadline for upgrades, there may not be many other options if the Bruins want to compete into June.
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