There were no clear-cut winners or losers in Thursday night’s preseason 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena when it comes to ultimately claiming NHL roster spots in Boston.
Brett Harrison continued a very strong training camp with a two-goal effort that included scoring the game-winning goal in the second period on a powerful one-man drive to the net, and veteran AHL forwards Riley Tufte and Patrick Brown both stepped up and showed they will be good depth once injuries hit the Black and Gold at the NHL level.
Shout out to Brett Harrison for making me look like a genius to the boys tonight.
— Bobbie Brewski (@bobbiebrewski) October 3, 2025
New OB out in the AM #NHLBruins | @OnlyBruinsPod pic.twitter.com/6hUrKhB6yc
“Starting with rookie camp, I think that really helped me get my feet under me,” said Harrison. “Coming into this game, I was feeling really good about my game. You just take it day by day. Last few practices have been really hard and high tempo speed, and that really helped me going into this game.”
Bonus credit for Harrison for showing a lot of patience and belief in his game while not actually getting a chance to strut his stuff until the second-to-last preseason game with NHL rosters due next week. The kid clearly put a lot of work into himself this past summer getting bigger, stronger and faster, and the results are showing on the ice.
And there were strong performances among proven NHL players like Joonas Korpisalo, Henri Jokiharju and Mason Lohrei sprinkled in with a young training camp crew that traveled to DC.
But none of the youngsters had a star turn last night that was going to symbolically lock in a spot for them on the B’s big club even as a number of them played very well.
“We had a tough start. I thought we showed them a little too much respect,” said Marco Sturm of a first period where the B’s were outshot by a 16-3 margin. “I thought the second half of our game guys had more fun, guys relaxed a little more and they really competed. That’s what we need to do all the time, and not just for a half-game or maybe we wait a couple of games to do that.
“Overall, I thought there were a few guys that were playing their best games of the preseason so far. [Matt Poitras] was better, way better tonight. That was his best game, for sure. It took him a little bit, then he got loose and he started creating momentum in the offensive zone. He was holding pucks a little bit more. You know, he’s a good hockey player. There are just little things we need to get out of him, but defensively he was great. He didn’t make one mistake and that line was really good tonight.”
So what to make of what we did see?
Well, a big part of the decision-making is going to come down to the health of everybody at the start of next week. Casey Mittelstadt has been battling an injury amidst a mediocre training camp and could end up being the odd man out if he’s not 100 percent to start the regular season.
The simple truth is that 25-year-old Matej Blumel, 21-year-old Poitras and 21-year-old Fraser Minten have all done enough to earn a spot on the NHL club at this point in training camp. And the 24-year-old Johnny Beecher and the 25-year-old Alex Steeves have not, though both players look like they will factor into a robust AHL club that’s going to feed the Bruins players when injuries inevitably begin to pile up during the season.
Marat Khusnutdinov looks like the perfect 13th forward to start the season, a player that can easily toggle between center and wing and looks equally comfortable playing with skill players as he does grinding it out in more of a bottom-6 type of role.
Fourth line and bottom-6 types like Mikey Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot and Sean Kuraly didn’t have to make the trip to Washington on Thursday night either with spots locked up, and Mark Kastelic assured of his spot as well after showing he was fully healthy during training camp. It feels like that doesn’t leave an NHL spot for Beecher, who played well in Philly earlier in the preseason and was still 10-for-14 in the faceoff circle even if he didn’t really factor into other parts of the game against the Capitals.
It stands to reason that Beecher will start the year in Providence, as most assuredly Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov will as well after failing to get on the score sheet in their final preseason dress rehearsal. Lysell had a tough night with no shots on net, an offensive zone tripping penalty and not much beyond showing off his great skating speed going up and down the ice for nearly 15 minutes.
Instead, they were outperformed by guys like Patrick Brown, Tufte and Harrison, who will be skating with them in Providence to start the season after helping lead the Bruins to a come-from-behind preseason victory.
“It was a better game for me…not just because I scored, but because I was keeping the game simple,” said Tufte. “They had some big guns in the lineup for them. For the most part, we tried to play simple and grind it out, which we did. It was great for us.
“You saw Brett Harrison with his first game in the lineup [for the preseason] and he scored two big goals for us. It hasn’t been easy for him. It shows you what type of player he is and there’s a lot of guys stepping up. It was a full team win there.”
The final answers will be revealed later this weekend about which players won the roster battles for training camp, but the beauty of the NHL season is that those answers don’t stay final for very long. At that point, it will become about maintaining the level of performance and helping a Bruins team win games, or this training camp has proven there are a whole lot of hungry players in Providence ready to step up and do it instead.