The first preseason game for any NHL team, and most definitely for the Boston Bruins, is routinely a time for young prospects and bubble players to announce their presence while furiously seeking an NHL roster spot.
That’s exactly what happened for the B’s in Sunday night’s 3-2 preseason-opening loss to the New York Rangers at TD Garden where some players took a nice step forward, and others showed perhaps they aren’t ready for prime time. In other words, it looked and felt like the first preseason game where players aren’t even a week into practices that will sharpen everything they are doing on the ice right now.
It was a bit of a sloppy, choppy affair as usually denotes that first exhibition game. There weren’t many tape-to-tape passes and it seemed like the puck was bouncing on the early autumn ice at the Causeway Street barn as players attempted to knock the rust off the summer shinny sessions.
But there were also some great individual players that made an early statement like 26-year-old Cole Koepke, who just signed with the Bruins this summer after toiling in the AHL for a very deep Tampa Bay Lightning organization over the last few years, and former Boston College stalwart Trevor Kuntar making a pretty solid statement in his second NHL camp.
Koepke isn’t expected to be one of the finalists for any open forward spots on the NHL roster in Boston, but that didn’t stop him from showing off his lightning skating speed (four shots on net) and the tenacity crashing the net to score on a Billy Sweezey point shot.
Cole Koepke opens the scoring for Boston.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 22, 2024
Sweezey with the initial shot, while Georgii Merkulov picks up the secondary assist.
1-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/oy1R8nY2WZ
“Powerful skater. Knack for scoring,” said Jim Montgomery, reeling off what he liked about Keopke. “He seems to be really tenacious on pucks. And from what we’ve seen so far, he seems to be a really good penalty killer up the ice…but I can’t really tell you in zone because I haven’t seen enough of it yet.”
Likewise, Kuntar scored on a loose puck in front that he shoveled with a backhander into the New York net, and throughout the game showed the kind of aggravating, high-motor style (three registered hits) that’s become his calling card in recent years. If it wasn’t exactly Brad Marchand pest levels it was something akin to that while very clearly getting under the skin of his Rangers opponents on Sunday evening.
Trevor Kuntar's hit stuns Jake Leschyshyn. Kuntar is fighting for the puck before Leschyshyn can get to his skates. pic.twitter.com/1U1JmpVe7H
— Bear With Me (@BearWithMe_Pod) September 22, 2024
“I mean it’s definitely a huge part of my role. It’s something I’ve kind of grown into. I love to compete. I love to play hard. I love to play with a little bit of edge,” said Kuntar, of riling up opponents. “I’ve come to find out the older I get the more people don’t seem to like it. I enjoy it. Hopefully it gets people off their game as it gets me into the game.”
Otherwise, Brandon Bussi looked fairly solid in net for the first time out and John Farinacci played a simple, smart game while looking like he might be a dark horse candidate for a bottom-6 forward spot. The possible fourth-line trio of Mark Kastelic (four hits and a blocked shot), Johnny Beecher and Riley Duran looked heavy and hard-working while skating together in a game for the first time and impressed the coach, which is the name of the game this time of year as the fourth line is definitely open for competition.
“I thought [Kastelic], Beecher and Duran as a line were really heavy and really hard,” said Montgomery. “You could see them winning a lot of battles and you could see that they would be hard to handle down low, which is an ideal situation for your fourth line.”
Now for the not-so-great developments from Sunday night’s exhibition loss: Flashy rookie Fabian Lysell did not take any kind of a step forward in a big training camp for him when it came to establishing himself as an NHL player. The former first round pick didn’t have a shot on net, turned the puck over twice and generally looked indecisive and unable to make plays once he gained possession inside the offensive zone.
For a young guy that the Bruins are hoping can win a right wing job alongside Marchand and Charlie Coyle, it wasn’t even close to the kind of noticeable performance they were looking for against a not-ready-for-prime-time Rangers unit shipped up from New York.
Georgii Merkulov was a little better gathering an assist on Koepke’s opening goal and playing with the puck on his stick a bit more during the game, but neither top Bruins prospect made a major, lasting impression if they hope to be with the big club in Boston when camp breaks a few weeks from now.
“The ice didn’t seem like it was rolling, and it didn’t seem like there were a lot of plays being made consecutively and a lot of passes being made tape-to-tape,” said Montgomery. “It seemed that way for everybody on both teams. I thought he played hard, and I thought he played with good pace.”
Similarly, Frederic Brunet had some chances to make plays with the puck and saw it fumbled away almost each time as he appeared to be clenching the stick pretty tightly in the preseason opener for the Black and Gold. And Michael DiPietro gave up a softy for the game-winning Rangers score on an outside shot that found a whole on the young B’s netminder.
Alex Belzile gets one to take the lead in the 3rd period. Filip Chytil gets an Assist for his 2nd point of the night. #NYR pic.twitter.com/jBD6uGR9Xr
— David 🏒 (@DaveyUpper) September 22, 2024
Clearly nothing was finalized and no roster spots were won on Sunday night as there is a long, long way to go in preseason, and many of the first impressions can be changed from lessons learned and mistakes corrected. But the first step in the preseason is usually a fortuitous one and that seemed to be the case for a number of bubble players that need to be at their best if they hope to be NHL players when the real season begins next month.