Bruins make recall ahead of travel to Toronto
Tied 1-1 in their best-of-seven with the Maple Leafs, the Bruins are bringing some extra help with them to Toronto, with defenseman Mason Lohrei officially recalled by the club Tuesday morning.
The move was confirmed by the Bruins and the league’s transaction wire mere moments after Lohrei was spotted as one of the nine skaters on the ice for an optional practice at Brighton’s Warrior Ice Arena.
Boston’s decision to summon Lohrei up from AHL Providence comes on the heels of a Game 2 loss that saw the Bruins play without Andrew Peeke for the end of the second period and all of the third period.
Down Peeke, the Bruins were forced to roll with just five defensemen — Boston’s group of five there consisted of Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelcyk, and Kevin Shattenkirk — and the grind on those players became evident as the period dragged on and the Bruins struggled to get much of anything going on their breakouts.
The Bruins even felt Peeke’s loss late in the second period, really, as it forced the Bruins to deploy Shattenkirk on the penalty kill (something they had done just 6:11 total over his 61-game regular season), which burned the Bruins when John Tavares hammered a shot that Shattenkirk was unable to block on its way through the Bruins’ Linus Ullmark.
Speaking ahead of the team’s flight to Toronto, the Bruins confirmed that Peeke will be out “week-to-week.”
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In his first full year of pro hockey, the 6-foot-5 Lohrei put up four goals and 13 points, along with 32 hits and 63 blocked shots, in 41 games for the Bruins. There’s no denying that Lohrei is a bit ‘raw’ when it comes to the pro game, especially in his own zone, but the promise of his offensive game has been there and his know-how certainly improved as the year went on.
“Mason [Lohrei] has had a good year,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said ahead of the start of this series. “First-year pro, he’s been in a lot of games in the National Hockey League, he’s done a good job.
“He’s one of the guys we discussed that you guys had asked about. To continue to integrate him into this environment I think is really important, and to be around to absorb [the playoffs] albeit not playing for a significant period of time and being rusty wouldn’t be the greatest thing for other him either. Individually, offensively gifted player, sees the game offensively, needs to respect the game a little bit more from a standpoint of defense, taking away time and space, and being as hard on the puck recovery side of things. But his exits and his offensive blue line stuff, it’s really hard to teach at that size, so we’re really excited about his progression. He hasn’t even played the position for that long, and he comes into a brand-new system. But he’s done a good job overall, and we’re excited about his growth and potential moving forward.”
Lohrei recorded two assists and a plus-2 rating in three head-to-heads with the Leafs this season.