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3 surprises so far from Bruins training camp as regular season approaches
The Bruins still have plenty of questions regarding their middle-six forward corps.
With just a week to go before the start of the regular season, Marco Sturm and the Bruins are entering the final stretch of training camp and preseason action.
At this stage of the fall calendar, Sturm and his staff are likely set to start cutting down the camp roster and leaning more on NHL regulars for reps over their final two preseason contests on Thursday and Saturday.
But, even with two weeks and four preseason games in the books, there are still plenty of unanswered questions looming over a roster with plenty of new faces.
Here are three surprises so far from Bruins camp:
No clarity in the middle-six grouping
Boston’s top line of David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, and Morgan Geekie is already set in stone — with the trio looking sharp so far during their preseason reps.
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Pastrnak looked no worse for wear in Monday’s preseason bout with the Flyers, especially after missing the start of camp due to knee tendinitis. Pastrnak’s offensive talents are expected at this stage of his career, but Geekie’s shot-first approach (two goals in preseason play) and Lindholm’s steady two-way details from the final stretch of last season have carried over so far.
Even Boston’s fourth line has some semblance of an identity, with a checking unit of Sean Kuraly, Mark Kastelic, and Mikey Eyssimont expected to dole out plenty of punishment on the ice this fall.
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But, there’s still no cohesion on a middle-six segment of Boston’s forward corps — an area of the roster that was arguably the most pressing concern on this depth chart entering camp.
Four of those six roster spots will likely be occupied by Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha, Viktor Arvidsson, and Tanner Jeannot.
Jeannot has largely been as advertised as a pugnacious power forward, even though it remains to be seen what his offensive ceiling is after scoring just 20 goals over the past three seasons.
Beyond that, it remains to be seen how Sturm will fill out those two lines, especially when it comes to who slots over to the wing.
Both Casey Mittselstadt and Pavel Zacha have logged reps at center during camp, but Zacha was also shifted to the wing during Monday’s preseason game — and missed five of his six shot attempts.
The case can be made that both Mittselstadt and Zacha are at their best when playing at the pivot position. But, structuring a lineup that way would seemingly limit the opportunity for a younger player like Matt Poitras or Fraser Minten to earn a spot at 3C to open the year.
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Boston is also banking on some new additions helping to generate 5-on-5 offense, be it Arvidsson or Matej Blumel. So far, Arvidsson has yet to pop during preseason action, landing zero shots on goal Monday and getting knocked off the puck on several occasions.
Sturm opted to flip Arvidsson to the third line entering the third period of Monday’s game, slotting up Poitras alongside Zacha and Mittselstadt to “get a little bit more life out of those two lines.” Not ideal.
And while Blumel scored a goal last week in Boston’s preseason victory over the Rangers, the 25-year-old winger had a quieter showing on Monday. His willingness to let pucks fly will likely help him earn a spot on the NHL roster out of the gate. But, Blumel’s details and processing speed has been a touch behind at times, making him a player that might have to be reliant on a top playmaker to coax regular production out of him.
It’s unclear who exactly that playmaker is on Boston’s second and third lines — at least based on what we’ve seen so far.
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“It’s been a few question marks,” Sturm told reporters Wednesday. “We had guys, a lot of players coming in and trying to get a spot. So I try to see them and give everyone an opportunity. But slowly … we have to find a solution here soon — where everyone is playing. Because we only have a few games left, and probably everyone has a game left, or something like that, and that’s not much.”
“I have to find a solution here pretty soon to find the right spot here, because I want them to get used to the linemates. It’s so important.”
Younger players haven’t seized an opportunity yet
Given the number of open spots on Boston’s depth chart, the Bruins were banking on at least a few younger skaters putting their best foot forward during preseason action.
But so far, Boston’s next crop of younger skaters haven’t exactly kicked the door down in terms of ducking an assignment down to Providence.
After accelerating his timeline to the NHL with a standout preseason in 2023, Poitras hasn’t made the same impact this fall, posting zero points over three preseason games.
Fabian Lysell is also seemingly on the outside looking in at NHL reps after getting related to a “Group B” crop of skaters last week — a group seemingly set for an assignment to Providence in the coming days.
Minten has arguably been the best of the bunch. While he hasn’t recorded a point through three games, Minten has stuffed the stat sheet, recording nine hits, four blocks, and winning 57.1 percent of his faceoffs.
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Minten’s profile as a steady two-way center with room to grow could make him an appealing player to slot into a third-line role this season and watch him develop. But, if Zacha or Mittelstadt are both playing center, that complicates things for the 21-year-old Minten.
“Most of the guys, those young guys, or that group — they already played a few games,” Sturm said Wednesday. “They’re probably going to get another crack at it, maybe next game. We just probably [have] got to see more, I would say, if they want to make the team.
“This is not any pressure. This is the NHL. So they all did okay … Those young guys have got to do special things to make the team and there’s some young kids — they just they got to do more. They got to give me a reason — let’s put that way. And hopefully they do in those games coming up.”
Hampus Lindholm hasn’t missed a step
As far as positives, it’s been encouraging to see Hampus Lindholm hit the ground running in camp with no limitations after missing most of last season with a fractured kneecap.
Suffering such an injury can invite the risk for repeated setbacks — or a scenario where a skater’s natural burst or edge work takes a hit in their return to the ice.
But, the 31-year-old defenseman has been smooth and reliable in his two preseason games, showing few signs of rust when it comes to both breaking pucks out of the D-zone and activating down the other end of the ice to support forwards and generate scoring chances.
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“He was great. He was so excited,” Sturm said of Lindholm’s preseason debut on Saturday. “He is just a solid defenseman. Yeah, once I think one or two shifts he got caught a little bit, but other than that I thought he was excellent.”
As flawed as this Bruins team is — especially up front — the case can be made that Boston is due for a bounce-back off of just Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy returning to a D corps that took on water last winter with them out of the equation.
A healthy and effective Lindholm bodes well for a Bruins team that missed his ability to ferry pucks out of high-danger ice, pepper the net from the blue line, and inject some playmaking poise to the power play if called upon.
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