Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
7 takeaways from Bruinsā loss to Rangers in preseason openerĀ
The Bruins and Rangers landed 56 hits in Sunday's preseason matchup.
Hockey finally returned to Causeway Street on Sunday, as the Bruins fell to the New York Rangers, 3-2, in their preseason opener.
Cole Koepke and Trevor Kuntar both scored for the Bruins, while goalies Brandon Bussi and Michael DiPietro split the net in the loss. Mason Lohrei led all skaters with 24:22 of ice time, while Hanson native Billy Sweezey landed a team-best five hits.
Jim Montgomery rolled with a younger lineup across the board Sunday, with most of the roster comprised of Providence stalwarts and younger players looking to make a push for NHL reps.
The Bruins will continue their preseason slate on Tuesday with another home game against the Capitals, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. at TD Garden.
Advertisement:
Here’s seven observations from Boston’s first on-ice action during the 2024 preseason.
Quiet night for Boston’s top prospect
Most of Boston’s lineup regulars did not take to the ice on Sunday, creating the opportunity for the team’s top prospects like Fabian Lysell to make a strong impression in what stands to be a critical camp for the 21-year-old winger.
But the potential top-six candidate for Boston didn’t pop all that much over his 14:56 of ice time on Sunday. He finished with zero shots on goal while skating on a line with Cole Koepke and John Farinacci.
Advertisement:
“I don’t know. The ice didn’t seem like the puck was rolling,” Montgomery said of Lysell’s quiet night. “Didn’t seem like there was a lot of plays made out there, consecutively.
“Like a lot of passes tape-to-tape. I’m not saying he did that. I’m just seeing like everybody, both teams — I thought he worked hard. I thought he played with a lot of pace.”
Even though Lysell’s skating talent is evident, he ran into some trouble while trying to use that speed to gain the offensive blue line — with that north-south approach not leading to much in terms of clean entries.
Lysell will need to be more selective and deceptive in his approach with the puck on his stick. He was knocked for two turnovers on one shift in the third period, the latter of which led to the Rangers’ game-winning goal just a few seconds later.
Lysell will have several chances to raise his stock, especially with six more preseason games left on the docket. But this was a very subdued debut for a player trying to cut his teeth in the NHL this fall.
Advertisement:
Another promising prospect in Georgii Merkulov did have a secondary helper on Koepke’s goal, but also didn’t land a shot on goal in his 15:37 of ice time.
Wotherspoon gets his revenge
It was a painful preseason debut for Parker Wotherspoon, who is the odds-on favorite to open the year as Boston’s seventh defenseman.
The 27-year-old blueliner was felled in the first period after getting popped on a late hit from Rangers forward Brennan Othmann. Wotherspoon was attended to on the ice by Boston’s training staff before heading down the tunnel under his own power.
Wotherspoon, who noted postgame that he simply had the wind knocked out of him, returned at the start of the second period, but was once again smacked by Othmann off a late hit in the middle period.
The Bruins defenseman clearly had enough at the end of the second, with Wotherspoon dropping Othmann with a few heavy hooks after they dropped the gloves following a netfront scrum.
“Two hits where I didn’t even see he was coming. That was pretty dirty,” Wotherspoon said. “Glad to respond that way.”
Both Wotherspoon and Montgomery were satisfied with the result as Othmann crumpled to the frozen sheet, although Wotherspoon regretted that he tossed Othmann’s helmet after the bout — which landed him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“Standing up for yourself in the preseason is a little different, but I don’t know — it’s part of the game, comes with it. I mean, I go out there and don’t take these games lightly,” Wotherspoon said. “Going out there to compete and play hard every shift, just the same as in the regular season. Just has ‘preseason’ in front of them.”
Greasy goals aplenty
Both of Boston’s tallies on Sunday weren’t pretty, but were the byproduct of simple, hard-nosed hockey.
Advertisement:
Koepke’s opening goal just 1:34 into the game was generated off a rebound bid. A shot from defenseman (and Hanson native) Billy Sweezey created a Grade-A look after the puck bounced off of Rangers netminder Louis Domingue.
Kuntar’s goal was a backhand shot through traffic that slipped past Dylan Garand, with the puck sent in from fellow BC product Patrick Brown as a mass of skaters gathered near the low slot.
While most of Sunday’s roster featured players who might spend most of this upcoming year in the AHL, a pugnacious forward like Kuntar could get a cup of coffee in the NHL thanks to his pugnacious approach.
The Bruins held an 8-2 edge in shot attempts over the 7:06 of ice time that the line of Kuntar, Brown, and Jaxon Nelson logged on Sunday.
“He’s a feisty, energetic winger. He play with a lot of edge. We like that, and he seems to always be around the puck, which hockey players tend to do,” Montgomery said of Kuntar. “The goal was a real smart play by that line. Brown throws it to net because Nelson’s there, and a broken play goes right to Kuntar, and he comes in and puts it home.”
Another player trying to make the jump to the NHL in Farinacci also impressed, winning 10 of his 15 faceoff opportunities.
Potential fourth line impresses
Even though he was knocked for a pair of offensive-zone penalties, offseason pickup Mark Kastelic clearly made a concerted effort toward throwing his weight around in his Bruins debut.
Advertisement:
Kastelic skated alongside two other potential fourth-line regulars in Johnny Beecher and Woburn product Riley Duran. The trio drew plenty of praise from Montgomery.
“I though him and Beecher and Duran — the whole line was really heavy and hard, and you can see them winning a lot of battles,” Montgomery said. “It looks like it would be hard to handle down low, which is an ideal situation for your fourth line.”
Beyond the physicality (seven combined hits), the speed present on that line was evident, especially when it came to skating in on the forecheck and beating New York skaters to loose pucks.
“I really like playing with Riley and Beech,” Kastelic said. “I think they’re both fast players, and I think our games complement each other, and I think we’re pretty simple as well. I think tonight we kind of kept it simple, and we got our opportunities that way, kind of getting on the forecheck, and that’s something I think as a line we just want to establish going forward.”
We’ll see how Max Jones factors into the equation as another intriguing fourth-line regular who plays with speed and snarl. But there’s a lot to like about this quartet of checking-line skaters.
Goalie report
Bussi didn’t open his preseason with a highlight-reel snag much as he did against the Rangers last September.
But the 26-year-old netminder was steady in his first reps of the 2024 campaign on Sunday, stopping 10 of the 12 shots that came his way. Both of the goals that Bussi surrendered were on his glove side, including a quick shot from Filip Chytil on the power play.
Advertisement:
“First one, I was pretty strained,” Bussi said of his performance. “I’ve got to do a better job of fighting through traffic. And the second one, I kind of went back — shaking off a little bit of the rust, but I gotta keep that first period to one goal. I thought we played really well and didn’t deserve to be down 2-1.”
DiPietro stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced, but will want back the eventual game-winning tally from Alex Belzile — with the New York forward beating him five-hole from a tough angle.
Good news on the injury front
Beyond Wotherspoon avoiding major injury from Othmann’s hits, Montgomery had some positive updates ahead of puck drop.
After exiting Saturday’s Black and Gold scrimmage in Providence due to an awkward fall, Morgan Geekie did not skate on Sunday. However, Montgomery chalked that up as a “maintenance day” for the bottom-six forward, rather than a more serious reasoning.
First-line center Elias Lindholm — who did not skate on Friday at Warrior Ice Arena in what was also dubbed a “maintenance day” by Montgomery — is expected to hit the ice tomorrow at the team facility.
“He’ll skate tomorrow just to see where he’s at,” Montgomery said of Lindholm. “We expect him back on Tuesday.”
Although 20-year-old Matt Poitras has impressed over the last few skates while centering a line with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, the Bruins want to get their top free-agent pickup back on the ice and building chemistry with Pastrnak as soon as possible.
Honoring the Gaudreau brothers
Before puck drop, the Bruins joined the rest of the NHL in honoring the lives of Johnny and Matthew Gaudrau with a video tribute and a moment of silence.
Advertisement:
Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were killed by a suspected drunk driver while biking in late August ahead of their sister’s wedding. Both Gaudreu brothers played at Boston College, with Johnny going onto a star NHL career with the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets.
After the video tribute, TD Garden held a 13-second moment of silence, an homage to the No. 13 sweater that Johnny Gaudreau donned both at Boston College and in the NHL.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com