Bruins drop Flyers in final home game of preseason schedule
After they were hammered for over 40 shots in last Saturday’s showdown against the Flyers in Philadelphia, the Bruins not only adjusted, but downright dominated the puck Tuesday night in Boston.
And in what finished as a plus-20 shot advantage for the Bruins by the night’s end, and with the Flyers held to just five shots in the third period of play, it was Tyler Johnson who made sure the Bruins had something to show for their efforts with the game-winning power-play strike in a 4-1 final.
The goal continued what’s been a solid preseason run for Johnson, who remains with the club on a pro tryout agreement, as he’s now been on the ice for five of Boston’s 14 preseason tallies to date.
Deadlocked at 1-1 through 40 minutes of action, the lone prior goal on the board for the Bruins prior to Johnson’s go-ahead strike came all the way back in the first period, with Justin Brazeau putting the finishing touches on a net-front look created by Nikita Zadorov’s dish to the high-danger area.
The big news for the Bruins in this contest came with Elias Lindholm making his preseason debut and finally giving the Bruins a look at their new first line with Lindholm between Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. The decision to play was made by Lindholm himself, according to Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, with Lindholm and the Bruins running out of proverbial daylight to get the Black and Gold’s newest top-six center in action ahead of next week’s Opening Night showdown in Sunrise.
Lindholm finished this game with two shots and wins in four of his 12 faceoffs in 15:31 of time on ice.
Brandon Bussi, the B’s current No. 2 goalie on the depth chart with the Jeremy Swayman saga still raging on, got the call for the full contest in this one, and finished with 13 saves. Bussi had a relatively light workload given the way the Bruins controlled play, but came through with a big-time breakaway save on Anthony Richard to keep things tied up at 1-1 early in the third period.
Boston dealt with an injury scare of sorts in this one, too, as Brad Marchand missed a couple of shifts before he departed down the tunnel in what was his first outing of the 2024 preseason slate.
But the Bruins quickly revealed that Marchand, who underwent three separate surgical procedures this past offseason, was dealing with an illness and not an injury.
The Bruins will now head to Quebec City for a Thursday night preseason tilt with the Kings.
