Preseason Game RECAP: Jack Hughes finishes it in OT, Bruins lose 4-3

Period 1:

Not much happened. It was 100% a preseason-y preseason first, and nobody looked in their right way except Kyle Keyser, who played like a madman due to an early surge from the Devils.

No score, off to period two!

Period 2:

Now THIS is where things got going on the scoresheet!

Oskar Steen turned on the jets to find some open space while entering the zone, and that was all that he needed to rip off a great shot past Cory Schneider. 1-0 Bruins!

Of course...Jack Hughes had to come in halfway through the period and ruin Dan Vladar’s preseason debut three shots in. 1-1.

Thankfully, things didn’t go any more sideways, and to the penultimate period we go!

Period 3:

Jesper Bratt happened. 2-1 Devils.

But thankfully, Walpole came to us early with a wonderful tying goal! 2-2 tie!

And because this game needed more twists and turns, Connor Carrick’s thunderclap of a shot made it past Vladar, making the game 3-2 Devils.

But in the waning minutes of the period, who but Jack Studnicka would finally crack through to tie the game up once again, finishing the period with a 3-3 Tie!

Overtime:

This happened:

Buuuuut unfortunately the minute the change of the puck carrier happened, the Devils got on their scoring horse, and let Nikita Gusev and Jack Hughes bring their magic. Less than ideal, but such is the nature of 3-on-3.

4-3 Devils win. That kinda sucks.

Game Notes:

• Urho Vaakanainen definitely showed a lot of promise over the mind-boggling 24:52 he played. Spent a full 25 seconds doing laps around the Devils in OT, made it hard for players to even get shots off around him while in his own end, and set up several opportunities for the B’s to do things in front of Schneider and Senn. Rough how the game ended, but it was a good game for him nevertheless.
• Played a bit Under the radar, but Axel Andersson led the team in CF%/FF% in his 19:25 of TOI. The swedish elf-child might be bringing a little bit of fancy-stats brilliance to the black and gold!
• Oskar Steen scored tonight! It was a really nice one! He and Studnicka had spurts of brilliance throughout the night, but Steen was the one to cash in. He also created a zone exit by getting in PK Subban’s grill after his stick snapped and then got a forearm shiver for his trouble. The dude’s right at home in North America.
• Studnicka’s big issue so far that I’ve seen is that he does pretty much everything alright except the very last piece of a chance; getting a shot off. He’s getting there, and his goal before regulation? Clutch-tastic. Just needs to put a bow on all those myriad positive skills together.
• Jakub Lauko stripped PK Subban of the puck and got a good shot off on Senn. He didn’t score, but man if that’s him at 19 stripping premiere NHL defensemen of the puck, I wanna know what he’ll look like even in six months. His skating legs are strong.
• In a surprise that should not come as one, the Devils spent a good portion of the game in control thanks to a lot of their NHL roster being around. Thankfully, the B’s had Kyle Keyser! Who made 17 stops!...and then Dan Vladar had to be in the game for the remaining period-and-a-half. He did okay, but he was absolutely not Kyle Keyser, and was not doing a great job moving cross-crease. Suffice to say, one definitely looked more like an heir apparent than the other.
• Jack Hughes was in that fun space where you go “aw man he’s probably got a year or two before he plays in the NHL” and “holy s#!t he should play 20 minutes a night immediately”. I for one, am not looking forward to when it looks more like the latter than the former.
• Gonna be frank with you, the only player over 25 I was 100% okay with in their spot in this truncated roster game was either Richie or Par Lindholm. The rest were, at least in my opinion, gumming up the works in what could’ve been a defensively bereft game with a maybe more boneheaded goal-against along the way, but one that the B’s might’ve had a better shot at controlling. As it stood, I felt a lot of the promise these rookies were showing were also kind of held back. Play the 4th liners who’ve been playing their hockey on the 4th line like 4th liners. It’s preseason, these games don’t matter. Veterans gotta prove their worth too, and a bunch of ‘em didn’t tonight.
• What did Connor Carrick mean by this

The Bruins are back at it again on Thursday @ 7 on NESN for once! We’ll see you then!