One more preseason game remains for the Boston Bruins, Thursday night (Oct. 5) against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. It will be the final test before the games begin for real six nights later on Oct. 11 at the TD Garden against the Chicago Blackhawks.
In the final preseason addition of Bruins 3 Up, 3 Down, the goaltending looks ready for the regular season, prospects are earning their way onto the 2023-24 roster, some veterans are struggling, and more.
Stock Up: Linus Ullmark & Jeremy Swayman
Yes, it’s only the preseason, but you have to be encouraged by the starts of goalies Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman in the last week. Neither goalie was able to beat the Philadelphia Flyers, but both played well, while Ullmark had a good night against the Washington Capitals despite losing in overtime and allowing five goals.
Ullmark made 32 saves, including some point-blank stops on Sept. 29 in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers at the TD Garden. He had 10 saves in the first period, then made two big stops in overtime to force the shootout. Against the Capitals, Ullmark allowed three first-period goals, but he played really well in the final two periods and half of overtime before Washington won it. He made 36 saves and the goal he allowed in the third period deflected off of defenseman Mason Lohrei’s stick, then the overtime winner was a bad defensive effort from David Pastrank who let Matthew Phillips walk around him and beat the reigning Vezina Trophy winner with a wrist shot from the slot. Sandwiched around those two goals were some big-time saves.
Swayman allowed three second-period goals in a 3-1 loss on Oct. 2 but made 21 saves, including some good reactionary saves. He stopped all seven shots he faced in the opening period as Philadelphia put together a pair of good power plays. Again, it’s just the preseason, but the performances were good.
Stock Down: Patrick Brown
It’s only been two preseason games because he was injured against the Rangers on Sept. 24 in the preseason opener, but you can certainly make the case that one of the Bruins’ younger centers should get a roster spot over Patrick Brown. The veteran pivot just has not looked good enough to make the roster.
Related: Bruins Facing Tough Roster Decisions With Their Bottom-Six
With the way that some of the prospects are playing and developing in front of everyone’s eyes during this training camp, Boston is better off going with the youth up the middle and setting themselves up for the future.
Stock Up: John Beecher Earned Fourth-Line Center Position
As mentioned above, Brown has not done anything to earn a roster spot to begin the season and Boston is better off giving the fourth-line center position to John Beecher to start the season. Beecher has had a good camp and preseason and brings a different dynamic than Brown.
Beecher is a strong skater, he has a long reach that can frustrate opponents and he has been getting better and better at the faceoff dot. He has a good skill set and he has a better chance of adding some offensive production than Brown. It feels like it’s Beecher’s time to make the roster and contribute.
Stock Down: Preseason Puck Management
The preseason is about working out the kinks and getting the mistakes out of the way hopefully before the regular season starts, but puck management is a concern for the Bruins, especially in the last two preseason games. Puck management against the Flyers on Sept. 29 was not very good and that included a lot of the Black and Gold’s regulars. The same thing happened on Oct. 2 in Philadelphia which led to three goals in a 3-1 loss. Against Washington, puck management in the first period played a role in three Capitals goals in the opening 20 minutes. There is very little margin for error this season for the Bruins and puck management is going to have to be better when the real games begin.
Stock Up: Matthew Poitras Earning Top-Six Center Spot
There is no way that the Bruins can justify sending Matthew Poitras back to the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) without giving him at least nine NHL games. There is no doubt that they have given him an opportunity to make a case to begin the season in Boston and the youngster has taken the opportunity and ran with it.
Playing both games this week on Monday (Oct. 2) and Tuesday (Oct. 3) against Philadelphia and Washington, the 19-year-old continued to play very well on the top line, and in the third period against the Capitals, he made a really nice play. He got the puck along the left boards, made a spin move out of the corner, and cut toward the net to score the game-tying goal.
“He played almost 17 minutes last night and tonight he was over 18 minutes,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “So back-to-back with what is uncommon travel that you wouldn’t really see in the regular season. … Overall, he competed, right? What you like is that he lost some battles, then he comes back and wins battles. That was a big goal that he scored to tie it up and he continues to show a lot of poise with the puck.”
The Bruins need to give him the opportunity in the first nine games to see if he is ready enough to go against NHL players on a regular basis. So far, he’s earned the chance.
Stock Down: Kevin Shattenkirk
It would be surprising to see the Bruins move on from Kevin Shattenkirk because he is a veteran on a cheap one-year contract, but it has not been the best preseason for the former Boston University blueliner. Puck management has not been great and in the preseason games he’s played in, he’s not been very noticeable. He’s going to have to play better when the season starts or we could see Lohrei sooner rather than later.
One final tune against the Rangers, then the games begin for real on Oct. 11. It’s going to be a different-looking Bruins team than the one that was eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last April by the Florida Panthers. This is setting up to be one of the more interesting seasons in a long time for the Black and Gold and it begins against former teammates Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno and the Blackhawks in six nights. The season is finally here!
