The competition is starting to snap into focus for the Boston Bruins when it comes to NHL roster spots during a training camp where jobs are most definitely open.
Obviously the two goal scorers (Morgan Geekie and Sean Kuraly) from Monday night’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden already have their jobs secured, and the exhibition game allowed for the perfect time for B’s star players David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm and Jeremy Swayman to get in their first game action.
Pastrnak assisted on Boston’s first goal and was on the ice for the second, game-tying score, and already looks good to go for the regular season.
“I had fun out there. It was good to be playing games again,” said Pastrnak, who finished with six shot attempts and four hits in a shade under 20 minutes of ice time. “It’s what you work for the whole summer. That’s what you are working for when you are tired in the summer…just having fun playing hockey again.”
But roster hopefuls are rising and falling with each preseason performance and that included Tuesday night, where Casey Mittelstadt got the early look centering Viktor Arvidsson and Pavel Zacha as the second line center. By the middle of the game those line combinations had switched to Matt Poitras riding the left wing with Zacha and Mittelstadt, and Arvidsson moved down to the left side with Fraser Minten and Matej Blumel.
“I needed a little bit more from both lines…a little bit,” said Sturm. “That was the only reason. I felt like I needed to do a little something to get a little more life out of those two lines.”
Geekie scored the game-tying goal off a 2-on-1 feed from Elias Lindholm to tie things up in the third and eventually send it to overtime and the shootout, but it was a strong, energetic shift from Poitras centering Pavel Zacha and Mittelstadt that directly led to Boston’s top line jumping all over a Flyers turnover in the neutral zone.
Morgan Geekie cashes in on the 2-on-1 bid with Elias Lindholm: pic.twitter.com/XbJIcsdLBO
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 30, 2025
Marco Sturm said he began shifting things around because he wasn’t seeing enough from the second and third lines as they’d been pieced together for most of the game, and noted the elevated pace of play and intensity in the third period once the pieces started moving all over the board.
Generally speaking, it also looked like the Bruins players are still getting accustomed to new systems being put into place like a clear neutral zone trap that was in effect for portions of the game, and a desire to play quick, connected hockey when the B’s have the puck.
“I thought the first period, our brains, our feet and our hands were just a step behind,” said Sturm. “It felt like, yes, we were connected but we didn’t play fast. So it’s just little bit of the flow was missing, I thought, for the first 40 minutes. It got a little bit better in the third. Structurally, it was good, but we have to connect faster.”
It all begs the question as to how things are going to shake out with players like Mittelstadt, Poitras, Fraser Minten, Blumel and Alex Steeves as they are all getting reps and looks throughout training camp. Steeves had four hits and three shot attempts in 12 plus minutes of ice time and was being looked at in more of a third line checking/penalty killing role where he did a solid job on Tuesday night.
“He played a little less in the third, but he did a good job. He’s got a thick body and he can battle. He won some puck battles and I used him one time on the PK too,” said Sturm. “All of the [young guys battling for roster spots] have had three games so far. They might end up with one more game. They practice so hard and so well.
“I think in the games they think too much. I’ve got to get them out of that…don’t think and just play the game. It’s a tough league, but it’s even tougher when you are in your brain. So I want them to just play free and to have fun.”
Further complicating things were the strong games by Johnny Beecher and Dalton Bancroft over the weekend, with Beecher scoring a hustle goal and doing some really good penalty killing work last weekend in Philly. That was a big answer for him after not playing well at all in his preseason debut in New York, and then having a conversation with his head coach that really seemed to get the best out of him.
Bancroft is a true dark horse candidate for an NHL spot out of camp, but the two-goal performance against the Flyers last weekend showed a young player that can shoot rockets while boasting the kind of size required for a power forward game. The 24-year-old qualifies as somebody to watch down in Providence, most likely, if the Bruins are looking for a big body capable of generating offense and playing the classic big man’s game down by the other team’s net.
The bottom line is that the competition with the Bruins is getting tighter for roster spots and nothing having been cinched with two preseason games remaining on the docket before the start of the regular season. And perhaps that means that there will be more of the young guys starting in Providence and more of the established, veteran players getting the nod to start in Boston, with the general idea that it’s a fluid situation based on player performance, development in the minors and how well the NHL team is doing with a new coaching staff and a team mandate for improvement.