The Boston Bruins open their preseason schedule with a 5 pm faceoff against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. The game is on NESN-Plus; even though Patriots-Jets will have been over for close to an hour by puck drop, 98.5 will not push to another signal.
All preseason Bruins games this fall will be telecast by NESN-Plus, NESN or TNT. On radio, 98.5 The Sports Hub is scheduled to broadcast next Friday at home vs. Philly.
Sunday, September 24: Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers, 5 p.m. (NESN+)
Tuesday, September 26: Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. (NESN+)
Friday, September 29: Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. (NESN+, 98.5)
Monday, October 2: Boston Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. (NESN, 98.5)
Tuesday, October 3: Boston Bruins vs. Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. (NESN, 98.5)
Thursday, October 5: Boston Bruins at New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (TNT, 98.5)
ROSTER:
The Bruins announced a 20-man roster for Sunday’s game vs. NYR (in alphabetical order …)
Forwards: John Beecher, Patrick Brown, Jake DeBrusk, Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie, A.J. Greer, Brett Harrison, Fabian Lysell, Jayson Megna, Matt Poitras, Anthony Richard, James van Riemsdyk
Defensemen: Mike Callahan, Ian Mitchell, Alec Regula, Reilly Walsh, Parker Wotherspoon, Jakub Zboril
Goaltenders: Brandon Bussi, Kyle Keyser
Of this group, DeBrusk, Frederic, Greer and Zboril played regularly for the Bruins last season. Other 2022-23 NHL regulars in this lineup: Brown, Geekie, Megna, van Riemsdyk, Mitchell.
Geekie, 25, is the closest thing to a team-building move by the Bruins this offseason. Unlike several other one-year, one-million deals dictated by several UFA departures and next-to-no cap space, the former Seattle Kraken center signed for two years at a $2 million cap hit. In acquiring another big, RH center who can play wing, Sweeney also identified what he hopes is a player with higher upside than what Seattle explored in skating him 11:19 ATOI over its 13-game playoff run last spring. The 6-3, 200-pound Manitoban was a third-round pick in 2017. The thing to remember with a guy like Geekie, well two things, 1) Dave Hakstol made his lines a little like Claude Julien did when he coached the Bruins (ie. not so much about 1, 2, 3, 4 but four lines that work together to achieve a desired effect); 2) Geekie could wind up in the top six because of how he can complement Boston’s talented, line-driving wingers. The 2013 Stanley Cup ended in painfully dramatic fashion, but one of the dynamics that gets lost is Michal Handzus was 36 when the Blackhawks acquired him at the deadline in time for their 2013 Cup run, and when Marian Hossa returned to the lineup for Game 4 of the final in Boston, he redid his lines, elevating Handzus to second-line center. The 6-foot-5 checker didn’t need to be a great playmaker, with Chicago’s embarrassment of riches on the wing, he only needed to win some faceoffs, complement his linemates with his big frame and hold up defensively. The way the Bruins have shifted away, finally now, as a team built around two top-line centers to a team most solid on the back end and still talented on the wing, Cup contention is not realistic without a top-line center, but if the best they can do in the immediate is identify a Handzus, a big player who can help the likes of DeBrusk, Brad Marchand and/or David Pastrnak, then coach Jim Montgomery has options.
Brown is a 31-yo, right-shot center (and Boston College alum) who began last season with the Flyers and finished it with Ottawa before signing a 2-year UFA deal with the Bruins ($800,000 cap hit). In Thursday morning’s opening, on-ice session of training camp, Brown zipped a wrist shot off the rush over Brandon Bussi’s glove and then went hard off-wing on the second part of the rink-length drill, smacking a one-timer that, as Doc Emrick used to say, “wouldn’t go.” Brown is emblematic of GM Don Sweeney’s offseason’s finds, a sturdy, solid, two-way centerman who can play along the walls and add credible support to a lineup with substantially less skill on the forward lines.
A word on AJ Greer, who might be the least-discussed Bruin from 2022-23. The big RW (6-foot-3, 208 pounds) will turn 27 on Dec. 14) so, like several other Bruins, he is no longer a kid, he is entering the sweet spot of his NHL career. Drafted 39th overall in 2015(!), the hope-so power forward was traded during Covid to the Islanders, then by the Islanders (to NJ) at the 2021 deadline in the package that netted them Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac (in time to outmuscle the Bruins in the second round). Sweeney signed Greer to a two-year deal in 2022, so he’s got one more season with Boston at $762,500. In 2022-23, Greer played 61 games, putting up 5-7-12 totals with 114 PIM’s while averaging 9:07 of ice time. Sweeney and Cam Neely know all too well how the Bruins could have used Greer’s big body against the Panthers’ defensemen in the playoffs, but some of his 114 minutes were game-situation blunders, the kind Montgomery could not risk in the playoffs. Here is the odd thing: With several new faces set up as hurdles for Boston’s widely criticized pool of prospects, Greer’s stock here was at an all-time low until Wednesday’s training-camp media sessions, in which both Sweeney and Montgomery, in separate press conferences, introduced Greer to the conversation about camp competition. If one of them brought him up, that’d be one thing. But they both did, kind of the way the media talks so much about Fabian Lysell but Sweeney keeps bringing up Georgii Merkulov. Now, in the case of Lysell and Merkulov, there is no question that Merkulov finished the last AHL season the more NHL-ready of the two, and he is older (albeit far less hyped, being undrafted and all). BTW, when Montgomery pulled the nets closer to finish camp’s opening on-ice session with a short game, Merkulov caught a pass and with a fraction of a second to think, roofed a backhand – thing of beauty – just sayin’. But the takeaway vis-a-vis Greer is Sweeney and Monty went into their first camp pressers on a mission to tell us not to forget about this guy. Looking forward to seeing how many shifts he gets on Sunday and what he does with them. Oh, and – not his fault – Greer is the guy wearing a number (10) that should have been retired several decades ago. If you don’t know who Bill Cowley is, Google him or get Jeff Miclash’s new book “Total Bruins 1929-39” and enjoy a tremendous effort of research and storytelling by this fine hockey historian.
Brad Marchand, 27th captain of in franchise history, modeling the new home uniform for the 2023-24 “Centennial Season” of Bruins hockey. Photo courtesy Boston Bruins
It’s the preseason, not the usual time to be debuting special uniforms like the one the Bruins unveiled during their “Takeoff” event in the JetBlue hangar at Logan a weekend ago (I anticipate the regular home uniform of the last several seasons during the preseason) … other things Rink Rap will be watching for Sunday:
Frederic: Will he take faceoffs? Montgomery indicated during the week that Freddy is more comfortable as a winger (though he was drafted with third-line center in mind), so let’s see how things play out with Freddy during a season when a lot can happen both in terms of who’s in the lineup (and therefore how Freddy can best fit) and how Monty decides which pieces fit where.
Harrison: This kid has a very quick stick and is not shy about putting the puck on net. Can he keep the pace? Wheels, defensive play, compete level, those are the places that will determine his long-range future.
Lysell: Compete, and will he try stuff that doesn’t work against seasoned pros?
Poitras: Rink Rap believes this centerman is the real deal, only a matter of time. How will he handle the next level of playing against men? And the level after that (the one with close-to-full NHL lineups)?
Goalies: Bussi was the second-best goalie in the AHL last year. A tall, left-stick stopper who as a late bloomer was not drafted but looms legit, and Keyser, a solid prospect at the position.
The idea in bringing back the Rink Rap blog is to post live during games as well in random hockey musings. Look for more on X (Twitter) @MickColageo
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 