Jakub Zboril looks ready, Lauko gets confidence boost & more takeaways from Bruins’ preseason loss to Flyers

The Bruins opened their preseason slate of games with a 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena. Here are five takeaways from Boston’s first on-ice matchup of the 2022-23 NHL season.

Box Score

Jakub Zboril doesn’t miss a step

For the first time since Dec. 2, 2021, Jakub Zboril took to the ice in an NHL contest — and he sure didn’t look like he missed a step at all.

After an arduous summer marked by a lengthy recovery from a season-ending ACL injury, Zboril looked like the same blueliner who seemed poised for a long-awaited breakthrough in the NHL last winter, with the 25-year-old blueliner logging 24:39 of ice time in Saturday’s loss.

Zboril is more of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none when it comes to his overall skillet, but that varied game means that the former first-round pick can be counted on in numerous situations for Jim Montgomery, with Zboril ultimately earning a hefty amount of reps with on both the man advantage (5:16) and the PK (3:06).

He’s not flashy, but Zboril can be an extremely effective asset when he’s handling the puck with poise and confidence, often making the simple, smart plays that routinely lead to quality chances in the offensive zone.

Even though Boston failed to cash in on its six power-play bids, Zboril routinely made the right play with the puck on his stick during 5v4 situations — while aiding in Boston’s transition game with some crisp first passes.

Montgomery noted earlier this week that Zboril was likely the first man up when it came to left-shot D that are poised to slot over to the right side to account for Charlie McAvoy’s absence to open the year. But with veterans like Anton Stralman and Connor Carrick on the camp roster, those guaranteed minutes are not set in stone for Zboril quite yet.

But a performance like Saturday helps validate Montgomery’s early comments regarding Zboril, who sure looked like an everyday player against the Flyers. 

Lauko gets rewarded

If there was ever a guy who needed to get rewarded with a tally on the scoresheet, it had to be Lauko.

Once one of Boston’s most dynamic and promising prospects, the Czech forward has been mired in a developmental no man's land for quite some time — with a dreadful 2021-22 campaign in Providence raising further doubts about whether his ascension to the NHL ranks was permanently stalled.

Injuries have been the primary hindrance for Lauko since going pro, but everything that could have gone wrong did for the winger last year, considering he only posted 16 points over 54 games while getting saddled with a minus-28 rating. 

For most of Saturday’s contest, Lauko’s bad luck seemed to continue — considering he was granted two Grade-A looks against the Flyers, only to have both attempts fail to hit twine.

But Lauko was finally rewarded at 12:50 in the third, snapping a puck past Troy Grosenick from the slot off of a feed from Josiah Didier to tie the game up at 1-1 for a time. 

Lauko still has a great deal of work ahead of him when it comes to accounting for last season’s struggles and leapfrogging the logjam of talent that is all vying for bottom-six reps with the B’s. But Saturday was at least a good start for the still-young skater.

Perhaps another preseason game — this time with his usual camp linemates in David Pastrnak and David Krejci — will help draw even more offense out of him.

Greer, Carrick lay the body to make good impression

It seems like Connor Carrick got the memo on Saturday upon seeing Anton Stralman take to the ice with the B’s over at Warrior — because the veteran defenseman did put himself on the radar of Boston’s top brass by way of a bone-crunching hit on Philly PTO tryout Antonie Roussel during his preseason debut.

Carrick’s subsequent grapple-fest with Wade Allison was nothing to write home about, but good on Carrick for making his presence felt and showcasing his ability to thrive as a physical equalizer further down on Boston’s depth chart.

Not to be outdone, A.J. Greer (one of the countless NHLers looking to land a spot on Boston’s fourth line) stood up for his teammate in Didier and dropped the gloves with Hayden Hodgson after the Philly skater knocked Didier into the boards.  

Greer has had a solid camp so far with Boston, especially when it comes to showcasing some of his north-south speed for a big body (6-foot-3, 208 pounds). But showing a willingness to drop the gloves and come to the defense of a teammate should also help Greer’s case when it comes to standing out for a pretty crowded pack of checking-line forwards.

Growing pains for Lysell/Beecher

A lot of the excitement from Saturday’s preseason opener likely centered around the performance of Boston’s promising prospects in Fabian Lysell and John Beecher. 

And even though both forwards did have brief spurts in which their skill, skating and poise did reveal themselves, it is pretty clear that patience will need to be preached when it comes to letting both youngsters adjust to the pro game.

An offensive conduit like Lysell didn’t show hesitancy when it came to calling for the puck, especially on the power play. But even though Lysell moved the biscuit with confidence and was vigilant while in search of seams to dish the puck back into the bumper, he was often a millisecond late when it came to his decision-making — often leading to tipped feeds or lapses in execution.

Again, these aren’t things that should necessarily come as a shock. The pro game offers little respite when it comes to giving players time and space to make plays, and young players like Lysell will need time to adjust. 

Stock watch 

Steady work in net from both Keith Kinkaid (14 saves on 15 shots) and Kyle Keyser (13 saves on 14 shots), although it does seem as though Kinkaid’s sweet Happy Gilmore goalie mask might be in need of some repairs. … Thought Chris Wagner was pretty engaged and threw his weight around a good deal, although his path back to starting minutes in the NHL still seems like quite the climb … A pretty quiet night from Tomas Nosek, who once again was unable to cash in on a quality look down low. Might be time to burn some of those sticks after last year’s bad luck. … Bit of a rough night for German blueliner Kai Wissmann, who seemed to get a wake-up call about the speed and size present in North America. Made a few hurried passes in the D-zone that could have resulted in some serious trouble.