Sports Hub Underground: The good and bad of Boston Bruins training camp

Author Matt Dolloff

September 29th, 2023 4:50 PM

(Click here to subscribe to the Sports Hub Underground podcast.)

The 2023-24 Boston Bruins are going to be a good hockey team.

That should not be a controversial take, but it’s sort of become one, because Boston sports media talk almost invariably devolves into doom hyperbole, almost a form of nihilism. Especially when you haven’t had an actual hockey game or any off-season activity to discuss in months.

So, at this point, we really just need to get to the hockey. And thankfully, it’s started, with Bruins training camp in full swing up in Boston. Ty Anderson has been there just about every minute of the action, and as he and I got together for the first Sports Hub Underground podcast in over two weeks, we had plenty to talk about.

Chief among the Bruins topics was the development of their top young prospects, and their chances of making the squad out of camp. Top forward prospect Fabian Lysell still appears to need time in the minors, and while the same can be said for left-shot defenseman Mason Lohrei, it appears that the 22-year-old is getting a real opportunity to seize a roster spot out of the gate.

We get into those guys, as well as other intriguing names like Matt Poitras, Johnny Beecher, and several others. Before we sink our teeth into the B’s, we get some Patriots and NFL thoughts off our chests. In honor of this being a birthday podcast for me, we close out with the “Big 3” parties.

You can listen to the full podcast above. Here are the approximate timestamps, if you prefer to jump around:

(0:50) Opening banter on life, “Star Wars,” and more
(28:10) Patriots/NFL talk
(56:10) Bruins training camp talk
(1:55:32) “Big 3” parties

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt’s content here.

B's prospect Mason Lohrei brings solid start to preseason battle

• Mason Lohrei at even-strength tonight per NST: Team-high 22:34 (5:12 more than next closest), 58.54 CF%, 13-10 edge in on-ice shots, 6-1 in high-danger chances. Played at least 8:00 of that 22:34 against Rasmus Dahlin (8:15), Tage Thompson (8:19), Zach Benson (8:43).

  — Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) September 27, 2023

  Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery has been pretty open about the 6-foot-4 Lohrei, noting that he’s not putting any sort of timeline on him, and that he’s been a “pleasant surprise” in camp. Within that praise. however, was Montgomery’s admission that the Bruins still needed to see how he would perform in battle within games to get a stronger read on him. Tuesday, though not perfect, felt like a strong start on that front.

  One thing that Lohrei will have to adjust to at this level is playing with more pace. His skating didn’t seem to be a glaring issue (some have knocked his skating as a potential limitation at the pro game), but his decision-making with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone will need to be just a touch faster if he’s going to put up points like he’s done in the USHL and the NCAA at Ohio State most recently.

  It still feels like the Bruins have him set up for a start in Providence, too, where the B’s will feed him big-time minutes with the club’s top minor-league affiliate and see if he can force their hand by being undeniable and posting strong numbers a step below the game’s top level.

• Beecher continues his push for NHL spot

  

  Sep 26, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins center John Beecher (19) skates with the puck as Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (26) defends during the first period at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)

• Despite a strong start Sunday night, Montgomery wasn’t planning any parades or assigning potential fourth-line center option Johnny Beecher a full-time locker stall at TD Garden after just one preseason tilt.

  Instead, it felt like Montgomery was challenging Beecher to do it for a second game in a row. (And he’ll probably ask him to do it for a third and fourth game in a row, for that matter.) Tuesday came with that chance for the 2019 first-round pick, and it was more of the same from Beecher for the most part.

  But there was one interesting wrinkle in this one, in my opinion.

  Beecher had a strong night at the faceoff dot Sunday night, and he did from the onset of the game, really. That was not the case Tuesday in Buffalo, as Beecher had a winless first-period performance at the dot, with three faceoff losses in as many drops. But he rebounded from there, and would go to win four of the next five that followed. In-game adjustments matter, and your mentality went starting slow matters, especially in the role he could play for this team.

• Oskar Steen gets on the board

  

  Sep 26, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins center Oskar Steen (62) celebrates his goal with teammates during the third period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)

• It was around this time last year that the Bruins made Oskar Steen available to the rest of the league with a move to the waiver wire for the purpose of assigning him to Providence. Then in his first year as the B’s coach, Jim Montgomery was real blunt when it came to why the Bruins risked losing Steen to anybody in the league. Montgomery said that Steen simply didn’t elevate, and that he got outplayed by his peers in training camp.

  But a year later, Steen is looking like a man with nothing to lose, and I mean that in the best way possible.

  On the board with the B’s only goal in the losing effort, Steen jammed away at the front of the Buffalo net, and used his 5-foot-9 frame to hang in tight right in front of Devin Cooley. He nearly struck for a second goal from that exact same spot, too, and is showing a definite fearlessness when it comes to that role.

  Which is exactly what Montgomery talked about this past weekend.

  “We’re looking to improve as a team [and] we want to be physical at net fronts. Steen’s been physical when he’s on top of his game,” Montgomery said this past Saturday. “That’s what he’s doing is getting to hard areas, driving to hard areas, making it hard on other teams to have time and space.”

  Montgomery also went on to note that Steen’s low center of gravity is making him a viable threat down low, with Montgomery outright noting that he’d prefer a 5-foot-9 guy weighing almost 200 pounds like Steen over a 6-foot-4 guy weighing 200 pounds because of that ability to hang in and absorb punishment.

  If he keeps it up, perhaps Steen can be a surprise like a Lauko and a Greer were.

• More thoughts, notes, and nonsense

  

  Sep 26, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17) looks for the puck during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)

• – Tuesday also came with the 2023 preseason debut of Milan Lucic. Playing to the left of Marc McLaughlin and Jakub Lauko, Lucic finished Tuesday’s contest with a takeaway and a minus-1 rating in 17:20 of time on ice. Lucic was doing Lucic things in the third period, and I do think his best moment came in a sequence that saw him initiate heavy contact behind the Buffalo net to maintain Boston possession and feed the puck back out to the slot, where McLaughlin and Lauko banged away for what was certainly a high-quality look.

  – I do feel pretty comfortable saying that Jakub Zboril is the ‘leader’ for the seventh defenseman spot on the Boston roster. I say that because of Zboril’s experience with the organization, familiarity with the coaching staff (longtime assistant Joe Sacco is going to run the defense this season). and also the fact that he can play both the left and right side. But I also think Ian Mitchell, picked up from Chicago in last June’s Taylor Hall trade, is going to do his part to make him sweat and make the Boston front office wonder if he’s the better option there. And on Tuesday, it felt like Mitchell was all over the ice and pushing pace at the attacking end of the rink.

  If this becomes a real race for the No. 7 spot, a couple of things to note in a potential Mitchell vs. Zboril debate: Mitchell has played more NHL games over the last three seasons (82 to 74) and is cheaper than Zboril, with Mitchell on the hook for a league-minimum $775,000 compared to Zboril’s $1.137 million cap hit. That’s an extra $362,500, which for the Bruins could mean the ability to carry three scratches instead of two so long as that third scratch is making close to league minimum as well.

  Something to maybe watch here.

  – A familiar preseason scratch for the Bruins: Maxim Chudinov. WHO!? I said Maxim Chudinov. WHO!? OK, you know what, we could do this all day, so let’s not. A seventh-round pick of the Bruins back in 2010, and a lifelong KHLer, Chudinov still remains a fixture on the Black and Gold’s preseason roster scratch list. There was at one point a slight hope that the 5-foot-10, 209-pound defender would come over and try his luck on the NHL rinks (he never even came over for a camp), but with Chudinov now 33 years old, it feels like those days are long gone. So why is he still on the roster sheet? Chudinov is still on the organizational ‘reserve list’ and because of that he makes it onto the club’s ‘scratched’ list during the preseason.

  My takeaway from that game: Max Chudinov remains the preseason scratch legend. This man has been a healthy scratch on the preseason game reports throughout my entire time covering this team (2010 to now). He has never come over. He will never come over. But there's always hope!!! pic.twitter.com/XerIanqlsB

  — Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) September 27, 2023

  Chudinov will remain on Boston’s reserve list ‘indefinitely’ and I gotta be honest, I hope he stays there forever. I want him still listed on these sheets as like a 70-year-old man. The legend must continue.

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Author Matt Dolloff

Category:

• Bruins
• Matt Dolloff
• Ty Anderson

Tags:

boston bruins,Milan Lucic,NHL,sports hub underground