Bruins Notebook: A new-look third line (in more ways than one) emerging as option

It’s been just two training camp skates for the Boston Bruins, and they’ll be the first to tell that nothing is set in stone, but a potential third line has taken shape for the club with Erik Haula between Jake DeBrusk and Nick Foligno.

This line is entirely new beyond the fact that we haven’t seen Haula and Foligno on the ice yet, too. An extended look at this line will be our first time seeing DeBrusk, who will be moved back to his natural left wing this year, working with a left-shot center after spending the majority of his career with David Krejci and Charlie Coyle. Even last year’s lineup shuffling saw DeBrusk play with another pair of right-shot centers in Patrice Bergeron and Curtis Lazar. But the lefty-lefty connection goes beyond left wing and center, too, as moving Foligno to the right would put the 33-year-old on his off wing and give the line three lefty shots.

It’s not totally unheard of, but it’s also not common.

The B’s tried this kind of trio briefly last year with Sean Kuraly between Nick Ritchie and DeBrusk, but that was a quick look that didn’t translate into a real line. Before that, the closest brush with a consistent all-lefty line probably dates back to 2013-14 with Chris Kelly playing with Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson/Reilly Smith. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy jumped into the wayback machine and brought up an even better, more successful version of the concept.

“Krejci, Wheeler, Ryder did a pretty good job here a number of years ago [and they were] all righties,” Cassidy recalled. “If you’re smart enough you’ll figure out each other’s strengths. That’s kind of how that should play out if they become a line that’s going to have success. They’ll just sort of have to read off each other.”

This line is a bit more chaotic (by design) than the Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder combination that terrorized teams in 2008-09, but it features a dangerous mix with the speed factors of both DeBrusk and Haula, as well Foligno’s ability to generate second- and third-chance opportunities with his dirty work between the circles and in front of the net. There’s also a definite nastiness factor from all three when they’re feeling their game, and this 0-to-100 build for all three may be exactly what they need.

“We all have skill, we’ve all scored some goals in this league,” Haula said. “We also take pride in our own end. Just trying to be an all-around good line, 200-foot line. We’ve got some skill to put the puck in the net as well and that’s our goal. It’s been fun the first couple days. I feel like we have a little bit of chemistry.”

But going back to those challenges and what the line will have to figure out, it seems that a lot of the work will come back to Foligno and how he sets the tone for the grouping as a left shot playing the right wing.

“They would have to sort out passing angles and receiving passes forehand, backhand. Usually the guy on the off side has to sort that out,” Cassidy said of a DeBrusk-Haula-Foligno line. “To me, it’s more about puck support [and] where are you, shooting off the pass when you’re the same stick. So some of that stuff, it will be Nick mostly if he ends up over there on the right, figuring out how to get pucks.”

“I just think it’s how you complement each other,” Foligno said of the three-lefty look. “So as much as it’s three left shots, it’s just the way you play in the zone. Are you able to make cut backs, give-and-gos, and certain plays. I think sometimes the predictability too, of knowing that you if you pass to a certain side it’s always going to be on the guy’s forehand. So as you learn each other, I don’t think it really matters what hand you are. And if a guy’s comfortable being on his backhand on the off wing, it just makes your line that much more dangerous. So I don’t really get caught up in that. I think it’s just more are you playing the way you need to play as a line to help the team win? I think that’s all we’re going to try to do if we’re a line together.”

• The Bruins have found Charlie McAvoy’s cursed drill

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  A late-practice collision with Ian MacKinnon during a drill put an end to Charlie McAvoy's session Friday.
  
  The unofficially word from the Bruins is that McAvoy, who was scheduled to speak with the media, was dealing with a "fat lip." (Unfortunately, the sum of that fat lip was not 41, or at least I didn't hear any when walking out of the facility.)
  
  But the Bruins believe that McAvoy will be A-OK, even if that specific drill is a cursed one for the B's franchise defenseman.
  
  "That's not his drill," Cassidy said. "It's about the third time he's got hurt in practice in that one. I don't know if a shoulder hit him. They came together. It might've been a stick this time. I know [Trent Frederic] got him last year with his helmet. He's OK."
  
  A formal petition to have McAvoy do anything else the next time the Bruins want to run this drill.

• Connor Clifton happy to have expansion draft behind him

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  Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton was one of 29 Bruins left exposed to the Seattle Kraken earlier this year. But that's an undeniable simplification of the 26-year-old Clifton's situation, as he was undoubtedly one of the top choices from Boston available to the Kraken.
  
  But the draft came and went with Clifton still with the Bruins, which is all he wanted.
  
  “I said it at the end of last year that I love being a Bruin, and I was hoping for that," Clifton said. "A little bit of a relief when [the expansion draft] went by and I was happy to come back to Warrior and talk to you guys this year."
  
  The 5-foot-11 defender, who looks noticeably bigger, opted not to watch the expansion draft on ESPN, but noted that the event was relatively stress-free once Jeremy Lauzon went to Seattle with the first pick of the evening.
  
  Clifton, who has been skating with Matt Grzelcyk through the first two days of training camp, is currently slated to be the right-side stalwart on the Black and Gold's third pairing.

• A check-in on 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell

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  It feels all but certain that 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell will spend the 2021-22 season with the WHL's Vancouver Giants. Lysell already visited with the Giants earlier this year and the eventual move to Vancouver seemed to be Don Sweeney's takeaway following last weekend's Prospects Challenge in Buffalo.
  
  But in the meantime, the Swedish wing has wasted no time making a strong impression on the B's coaching staff.
  
  "Very dynamic," Cassidy said of Lysell. "I liked his ability to attack the net, he goes in traffic. He's not a huge man, but he's willing to drive wide on a [Derek] Forbort. Got stood up at the blue line, but it's nice to see he's willing to do that. He seems like a guy that has an attack mentality that's going to get inside, not just perimeter."
  
  The Bruins can always use more of that.

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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.