TAKEAWAYS
As the New York Rangers got their act together in the second period of Sunday’s 3-0 Bruins victory at TD Garden, Brandon Bussi‘s 14 second-period saves were impressive until two of the seven he made in the third period were even better, one on a chalk-it-up goal that he stole from Jonny Brodzinski. Bussi does not get ahead of himself, even though he looked every bit a NHL goaltender in this game, soup to nuts.
The crowd, announced as a sellout (17,565), was filled in the balcony, some scattered space down in the Loge sections as some season tickets likely stayed home amidst the rain and decided against rushing into the city after watching the Patriots eke out their first win. But the fans upstairs roared their approval upon Bussi’s best save, a sure-thing, national highlight had this been a regular-season game.
“Just a wild experience overall,” said Bussi afterward. “I don’t think I’ve ever played in front of a crowd that excited, that much energy, and it’s only preseason. It’s a testament to how great our fans are, and just a super-exciting experience to do it here for the first time.”
A late-blooming albeit very legitimate NHL prospect, Bussi has a mature outlook, contextualizing Sunday’s game as a great opportunity for him to do his best getting ready for opening day. He knows his performance doesn’t change his 2023-24 trajectory; barring injury, it would take a consistent collection of those to leverage him into the NHL ahead of his time.
Last year, Bussi’s first as an undrafted pro, he shared the Providence (AHL) net with Kyle Keyser (who backed up Sunday) and journeyman Keith Kinkaid (since left in free agency).
“The competitive side is you want to be the guy in net, but as long as you’re winning games and you’re getting the job done, it’s a pretty happy team,” said Bussi. “I don’t really look at … the competition side of it; we compete in practice, and when the game time comes it’s about who’s going to get the job done that night, and I think our track record spoke last season with some success.”
Bussi just sponged up the first-year-pro experience, including time in camp alongside Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman and, during the season, his coaching (mostly Mike Dunham). He established a camaraderie in Providence’s crowded cage that was not unlike the dynamic the NHL club has had with Ullmark and Swayman.
“I worked really hard last year and kind of climbed the ladder in a way. (I was) just kind of excited with the opportunity, didn’t really have an expectation. I think the whole point of preseason and training camp is to be ready for opening day, so that was my goal,” said Bussi. “Did I know tonight was going to happen like this? You just compete and you see what happens.”
Left winger AJ Greer (16:06) played a pretty clean game for the Bruins, making smart little transition plays in keeping with coach Jim Montgomery‘s short-pass, possession game. Then he engaged Connor Mackey in a brief confrontation that morphed into a fight with giant (6-6, 230) defenseman Ben Harpur, who got Greer’s sweater over his head and pummeled the 6-foot-3 Bruin to the ice in a heap. A couple of minutes before this event, yours truly had requested Greer for a postgame discussion – that did not happen. Hopefully he’s OK; the Bruins are not practicing or conducting media availability on Monday. Camp will presumably resume on Tuesday morning at Warrior before a game roster boards a plane to Buffalo for the second preseason tilt against the Sabres (7 pm, NESN-Plus).
Johnny Beecher (15:42) scored a pretty goal, using his speed to get in behind the NY D and converting on Jonathan Quick shortly before the veteran and hero of two Cup championships in Los Angeles a decade ago gave up the net to Louis Domingue. Quick (3 goals on 14 Boston shots), a product of UMass before his meteoric rise to the world class level alongside Tim Thomas during their common peak, is but a shadow of himself at this point.
Matt Poitras (pronounced PAWtra) had a goal and an assist in 14:09 while skating with Jake DeBrusk (also 1-1-2 in 11:35) and Brett Harrison (15:34). Poitras also played powerplay and penalty kill and won 7 of 12 draws. Where he impressed Montgomery was in his ability to compete in the tight areas and make himself an elusive target to bigger opponents who would like nothing more to knock the shifty kid on his fanny.
“(Poitras) competes on draws, he competes for loose pucks, not timid at all in any area,” said Montgomery. “There’s one play in the second period where he dove down to win a (puck) battle and he got low and he won that battle, and then he drove by someone … he took a glimpse of a hit, and again signs of a little bit of an elusive player. They didn’t get a big piece of him. Those kind of plays show me his competitive fire, that he wants the puck.”
Montgomery was happy with Boston’s 63% performance in faceoffs, his one semi-critique of Boston’s centermen being Morgan Geekie‘s quiet 16:25 (1 shot, 1 hit, 5-3 on the dot – he was on the ice for Poitras PPG).
“Geekie, I think, as a veteran, they picks their spots when they want to play sometimes, you know,” said Montgomery. “That’s just the nature of him getting a rhythm to get ready for the regular season. I thought he was good.”
Along with Greer toward the end, earlier Jakub Zboril (15:41) left the game after taking a high hit, and well before that Patrick Brown (5:46, 9 shifts) left the game. Montgomery considered both situations precautionary.
James van Riemsdyk, who helped DeBrusk score his goal while skating 11:48, modeled a solid, two-way game for the prospects. He went to the net on the powerplay but also held the puck in the corner, backing off Rangers defensemen who might be a little more eager to force the issue with a wannabe NHLer.
Fabian Lysell (16:53) put 3 shots on net, the second most for Boston behind DeBrusk (4). Lysell skated on a unit with Beecher and Greer but looked a bit disjointed while trying to accelerate in the neutral zone.
FIRST PERIOD
After trading tight point-to-point passes with Reilly Walsh, Matt Poitras got the Bruins on the board on the powerplay at 1:20 of a Matthew Robinson high-sticking penalty (on AJ Greer) and at 7:20 of the game, 1-0 Boston. Poitras shot from the top of the left circle broke off Jonathan Quick and in.
Before that powerplay, Anthony Richard had a glittering opportunity slide off the post.
SECOND PERIOD
The Rangers failed to clear the defensive zone, and James van Riemsdyk and Poitras combined to get DeBrusk clear on the off-wing and, bam, 2-0.
It looked like Jimmy Vesey might close the gap, but Brandon Bussi denied him on the goalmouth cut-across.
Johnny Beecher then converted on a breakaway from Jakub Zboril and Trent Frederic at 8:07, 3-0 Boston. Beecher’s break was a thing of beauty, as the Michigan product used his natural speed to clear-cut around the defense.
At 10:27 of the second period, Quick left for Louis Domingue, but Bussi stayed in.
Ironically, the Rangers played a more-intense second period, picking up their cycle game and giving the west-end fans the majority of the action as the Bruins had in the first period when they were shooting at the west end of TD Garden.
Rangers hit at least their second post of the period with under five minutes remaining when Adam Sykora ripped a wrister off the crossbar.
Late in the second period, Richard high-sticked Braden Schneider trying to scoot past the Rangers defenseman to chase his own dump right in front of the Boston bench. Richard took a little hit in the back as the players came together, but his was the lone penalty.
Bussi ended the second period with 21 saves, while the Bruins scored their three goals on 14 shots.
THIRD PERIOD
Bussi stays in net for the Bruins.
With Fabian Lysell in the penalty box, Bussi stopped Chytil, then robbed Jonny Brodzinski of a wide-open left-side put-away, drawing a huge roar from the TDG crowd.
Bruins finally generate some offense, but DeBrusk couldn’t get full leverage behind his shot that Domingue gobbled up. NYR defenseman Connor Mackey and van Riemsdyk get into the shoving match.
Bruins got busier, but Domingue blocked and sticked away attempts from Brett Harrison and Lysell.
Richard had Boston’s best chance of the third midway through from a slot, but Domingue looked large snuffing out his spin-wrister.
Both Reilly Walsh and Parker Wotherspoon blew tires during the third period, but the Rangers were not able to turn those mishaps into scoring opportunities.
To be updated following tonight’s postgame media availabilities…
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 