Bruins vs. Rangers Preseason Finale RECAP: Poitras lifts Boston over NYR!

With that, we wait for next wednesday.

First Period:

The Boston Bruins I am told appeared in this period. I do not agree. Jeremy Swayman was the only player in a white sweater that showed up in this frame, and even he couldn’t do it all, surrendering the first goal of the game to Kaapo Kakko. 1-0 Rangers.

Well placed shot, a rare moment of weakness from Swayman, but given that he (and presumably whatever shades wearing those white jerseys were) had but a single shot on goal through the first 20 minutes of play, it was realistically only a matter of time.

Anyway, the Rangers couldn’t solve Swayman a second time, and we head to the second period.

Second Period:

Oh hey look who decided to show up.

The Bruins got a power play about 9 minutes into the period, and immediately Boston went to work; putting the Rangers on the backfoot, and Charlie Coyle potted home a David Pastrnak pass to even things up! 1-1

Great effort to get to the middle of the ice, and excellent play recognition by David Pastrnak.

Charlie Coyle then took three consecutive minor penalties...But nothing ultimately came of it.

To the third we go.

Third Period:

After a strange night where the Poitras line was a little uncharacteristically quiet, they finally managed to connect on an excellent play that started with Frederic doing some heroic things to keep the puck, and Matthew Potras putting a missile past Shesterkin to make it 2-1 Bruins!

We’ll talk about it later in the game notes but this was a shift that was badly needed by this line, and it finally bore fruit.

The defense held strong throughout the third, and as things wound down, AJ Greer ended up potting home the empty netter, and the Bruins walked out of Madison Square Garden the victors of a 3-1 Contest!

Game Notes:

• Your TOI Leader was Charlie McAvoy, who logged 21:40 tonight.
• Mason Lohrei was once again a solid hand to have in these trying times. A solid skater with his size makes for a player that is going to end up being very popular down the line. I’m probably putting him on a 60/40 shot of being the official Derek Forbort Replacement™ come October 11th. He was one of four players who played over 20 minutes tonight, and was one of the better defenders tonight.
• Matthew Poitras, man. This kid saw that this team’s issues at center have created an opportunity and he’s not about to be sent down for anything. A go-ahead goal like that was also sorely needed for a line that was otherwise kind of rough tonight: it took them nearly 40+ minutes to register a shot attempt, and while they did a lot of busy nothing tonight, that goal came at the perfect time. I think he’d be best suited perhaps seeing some form of middle six action to begin the season.
• Speaking of...I’m just gonna say it; Freddy and Geekie are not a fit, and do not need to be playing on the same line together. They played a hair over ten minutes total TOI and I do not blame Coach Montgomery for doing so; aside from the scoring play, they got filled in. Jesper Boqvist on the other hand. He can stay.
• Charlie Coyle had a weird night; following a Jimmy Vesey hit he managed to get into a tussle with Vesey, and instead of receiving 5 for fighting or something along those lines, he received three consecutive minor penalties. He also followed that up with a cross check to Kaapo Kakko. He also scored the game-tying goal and looked pretty strong tonight. What a night for him in all the weirdest ways.
• Jeremy Swayman deserved this first star for the atrocious effort put in front of him by the Boston Bruins after 20 minutes of play and it only ending up being a 1-0 game.
• One of the underrated negatives of the Bruins preseason has been puck possession. Namely, that it’s been mostly absent through the Bruins warmup games throughout the last two weeks, and it wasn’t around for much of this game either. Credit to the defense that it stayed 1-1 for as long as it did and definitely credit the Poitras line for getting that goal when they did, because otherwise it wasn’t pretty. Thankfully this wasn’t a 100% NHL-ready lineup, so we can just hope the cuts in the upcoming days end up righting the ship.

Preseason is over. The 100th season of the Boston Bruins begins on the 11th, with a visiting Conor Bedard, Nick Foligno, Taylor Hall, and the Blackhawks showing up to open the season. That game drops the puck at 7:30pm EST.

There will be some roster cuts, and official roster dropped, and an NHL season to come.

We will see you there.