After six preseason bouts against the Capitals, Rangers and Flyers in which a goaltending battle emerged, multiple youngsters cut their teeth at the pro level and a bevy of free-agent pickups donned black-and-gold sweaters for the first time, the Bruins are ready to move on to the 82-game gauntlet of the 2021-22 regular season.
But Bruce Cassidy and his team are going to have to wait a bit before the games start to really matter.
After closing out preseason action on Wednesday night against the Capitals, the Bruins will not take to the ice against another opponent until their season opener against the Stars at TD Garden on October 16.
But despite having more than a week off between now and regular-season action, the Bruins aren’t going to be twiddling their thumbs during this buffer period.
A much-needed retreat for the entire club is on the docket at some point early next week — allowing a slew of newcomers in the B’s room (and even 2020-21 additions like Craig Smith and Taylor Hall) to cultivate some chemistry with the established core away from the rink.
But the Bruins still have plenty of business to take care of over the next week — be it trimming the NHL roster down to 23 players or making a final ruling on a couple lineup decisions.
Here are a few final questions that Cassidy and Co. will need to sort out over the next week when it comes to this Bruins roster:
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Who gets the season-opening start in net?
Had you asked me before camp opened who would be bestowed the honor of guarding the B’s net next Saturday, Linus Ullmark sure seemed like a safe bet.
Yes, Jeremy Swayman was stellar over a 10-game sample size last year and Boston was going to give him plenty of preseason reps to prove that debut was no fluke, but Ullmark’s veteran status (and that $20 million contract) would sure seem to give him the slight edge, especially if both netminders were performing at the same level.
But now, Ullmark’s veteran title and that $20 million contract might be the ONLY factors working in his favor when it comes to getting the nod in net against the Stars. Because be it the eye test, the baseline numbers or the fancy numbers we love to flaunt, Swayman has been the better man in net this fall — and it hasn’t been particularly close.
Of course, there’s no need to sound the alarms based on the performance from three preseason games — but it’s rather evident that Ullmark still has plenty to work on over the next week-plus.
In total, Ullmark relinquished 10 goals on 62 shots (an .839 save percentage) during preseason action — with only Devils goalie Jonathan Bernier surrendering more tallies with 11.
During even-strength play, Ullmark ranked 44th among 48 goalies (min. 60 minutes TOI) in goals saved above average at -2.35, while his high-danger save percentage of .667 ranked 45th among that same pool of talent.
Of course, the Bruins aren’t going to be panicking and making sweeping declarations about Ullmark’s season based on such a short sample size. But Cassidy did note following Wednesday’s loss that the 28-year-old goalie is going to have to keep shaking the rust off over the next week of camp.
"He had lots of action, which is good,” Cassidy said of Ullmark’s play on Wednesday. “He needs it. He needs to get playing time. He's just got to tighten up. Some pucks are finding their way through him.
“For a big man, that'll be a challenge and a lot of goalies are judged that way — do they get beat with good shots or do they get through you? So we got to make sure that (Bruins goalie coach) Bob (Essensa) tightens him up and some of the pucks are finding ways to get in the net through him and he'll have to work on that. ... So what do I think of him? I think he was better and he's just gonna need more reps.”
By comparison, Swayman has offered far more poise in net over the same preseason workload. The 22-year-old goalie stopped 68 of 73 shots for a .932 save percentage — while his goals saved above average of 2.56 ranked second overall among that group of 48 netminders.
At this point, Boston has yet to name a starter for Oct. 16 — and perhaps the optics of Ullmark’s status and that pricey contract sitting on the bench in the season opener might be clouding what sure seems like a clear-cut decision.
Who knows, perhaps we fast-forward to November and Ullmark has settled into a groove and Swayman is going through his first real developmental bump in the road as more teams get the book on him. That very well could happen, but at this current juncture, Swayman has been far and away the better goalie — and worthy of that season-opening start.
Who makes final cuts?
Well, so much for the potential of youngsters like Jakub Lauko and Brady Lyle making things interesting this preseason.
Granted, when your team allocates a whole bunch of funds in the summer to add guys like Nick Foligno, Erik Haula, Derek Forbort and Tomas Nosek, it does sap some of the intrigue that usually comes with camp and the vacancies available up and down the depth chart.
Even with some AHL regulars like Lauko and Lyle showing flashes during preseason action, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise when Boston announced another round of cuts Wednesday that included Lyle, Lauko, Jack Ahcan, Oskar Steen, Jesper Froden and others.
Wednesday’s transaction stood as the most significant roster trim of the fall so far for Boston, but there are still a few skaters hanging around at Warrior Ice Arena that the B’s will need to make a decision on in the coming days.
At this point, this sure seems to be the lineup that Cassidy plans on rolling out next Saturday:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Hall-Coyle-Smith
DeBrusk-Haula-Foligno
Frederic-Nosek-Lazar
Forbort-McAvoy
Reilly-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Clifton
Ullmark/Swayman
So what about the other holdovers still on the NHL roster in: Jack Studnicka, Chris Wagner, John Moore, Jakub Zboril, Urho Vaakanainen, Karson Kuhlman and Anton Blidh?
Despite Studnicka’s best efforts to carve out a role on the NHL roster out of camp, it sure seems like the young forward is going to fall victim to the number’s game — as there just doesn’t seem to be a defined spot in Boston’s lineup for the 200-foot-forward at this time.
Add in the fact that Studnicka is also exempt from waivers with a potential assignment to Providence, and the writing sure seems to be on the wall for the young pivot’s destination to open the year.
While yours truly pitched a scenario in which Studnicka could slot in somewhere on Boston’s fourth line, it sure seems like Cassidy is rolling with the Frederic-Nosek-Lazar grouping at first, even if that trio has largely underwhelmed as a unit through preseason action.
With Vaakanainen also exempt from waivers, he’ll also likely get bumped down to the AHL at the appropriate time, although the defenseman is currently nursing an upper-body injury.
If the Bruins opt to carry eight defensemen (with Moore and Zboril serving as the depth pieces), that would then only leave one more spot on the roster for Wagner, Kuhlman or Blidh — with those fourth-line candidates all needing to pass through waivers in order to get sent down to the AHL ranks.
My hunch says that Wagner sticks around as the 13th forward, with Kuhlman and Blidh sent down to Providence (as long as no team snags them on the waiver wire).