First, condolences to the family of the great Bernie Parent and all Philadelphia Flyers fans. I’m a bit stunned by the news of Bernie’s passing, even at age 80, as he was always so full of life, happiness and positivity on social media.
Coming so soon after the losses of Ken Dryden and Eddie Giacomin – we’d lost Tony Esposito several years earlier – the pantheon of the goalie greats whose work I saw in the nets of the Bruins’ rivals during the 1970s has suddenly been hit with a 1-2-3 combination of monumental departures.
I recently saw Gerry Cheevers at the Bruins’ golf outing, and he’s still chugging along, as is his partner Eddie Johnston. Parent was among those three (and played more games than either in 1965-66) as the Bruins saw their roster through cataclysmic change at the end of the NHL’s six-team era.
Parent was exposed in the waiver draft to the Flyers, who would trade him to Toronto, where Bernie would hone his skills under the great Jacques Plante. Parent went to the WHA and jumped back to the Flyers right as the NHL team was coming of age. Theirs was a perfect marriage (not unlike the one I wrote about with Dryden and the Canadiens), but it didn’t last as long in part because of Bernie’s injuries, a neck problem that leveraged him into giving up the net during the 1975-76 season, and especially as paired with Rick MacLeish’s injury, making it impossible to beat the mighty Canadiens and threepeat the Cup. Parent returned to the net but was never quite the same, and a horrific eye injury in the 78-79 season cut short his career.
The 2025-26 NHL season will begin without Dryden, Giacomin and Parent. Another road sign for our generation and the wonderful, indelible snapshot we had of hockey circa 1960s and ’70s.
The Boston Bruins will nonetheless get started this afternoon with a 5 pm preseason tilt on home ice (TD Garden) against the Washington Capitals (NESN Plus, pregame 4 pm on NESN). Here is Boston’s lineup as posted on X:
The thing that first stood out to me is that, rather than go with a lineup loaded with possibilities for the center position – probably the decision that pushes over the dominoes – this lineup is dominated by wingers.
Elias Lindholm, Fraser Minten, Matt Poitras and Patrick Brown comprise the likely center chart for this game. While Morgan Geekie played second-line center for Boston in the 2024 playoffs, there is no way he will “get a look” there (it would only happen as an emergency – as it had in ’24).
It should not be forgotten how poorly Geekie began the 2024-25 season, much like many teammates but most notably Trent Frederic, and the common thread was their lack of placement as then-coach Jim Montgomery, who thought very highly of both forwards, used his camp to sort out other things on the premise that he would be able to insert either Geekie or Frederic to bolster any lingering gaps. The only problem was that an undefined assignment left both players thinking on the ice and not just playing, skating and hustling. The result was both struggle to find traction, and Monty was coaching St. Louis by the time Geekie figured it out.
It obviously didn’t hurt that Geekie moved to David Pastrnak’s line, but the equally if not more important fact was Geekie, a right shot, moved to left wing, unlocking his offense.
This observation is not a general advocation for the old Russian way of playing all wingers on the “off wing” (that is, stick inside toward the center rather than aiming at the boards). But it was a crucial change in Geekie’s career, as it was in Mike Knuble’s. Those who remember Knuble will recall his struggles as a depth right winger until, after Bill Guerin left the Bruins in free agency in 2002, coach Robbie Ftorek moved Knuble to LW on Joe Thornton’s line. Again, elite playmaking presence on the line, but the off wing was a big deal for Knuble.
The hockey reason for this is, like Geekie, Knuble is big and strong but lacks blinding speed. To be a prolific scorer as a right shot on the right wing, a player has to have that step or some combination of speed and power (Ken Hodge or Cam Neely) or elusiveness (Pastrnak or Rick Middleton).
Steve Heinze had a lethal RH shot, but his opportunities to unleash it were limited by his RW position. Most of what Heinze got offensively came from the left circle or the slot. He had a poor deke inside to his backhand – typically poked away by the left-side defenseman – and while his wheels were solid, his speed was not out of the ordinary. Heinze definitely would have scored more as a left winger.
A right shot whose offense was unlocked by Claude Julien (first in Montreal) was Michael Ryder. Julien was obviously influential in Peter Chiarelli’s acquisition of the winger to Boston in 2008. Ryder was a solid LW for Boston, his game most like Wayne Cashman’s in that he won pucks in the LW corner and, with his right shot, curled up toward the halfwall with a keen eye toward his options, be it hard cross to the net (or the slot), hold a little longer and cut into the circle for the shot (or fake that shot and pass to the right point for instance), or cut out higher with similar thoughts. Ryder’s offense all came from left of center, stick inside.
Not all wingers are created equal in all aspects, but Geekie has proven he is far more productive on the off wing, and I believe that to be true whether he plays with Pastrnak or not. The good thing is that, while a new coach (Marco Sturm) needs to see some things for himself and work them out on his own timeline, Geekie told the media this past week that he learned last year how to consider creating offense and getting the puck on net from a variety of spots. That means that, even if Geekie goes to right wing to start the season, he’ll be a far better version of himself than the player that looked lost in the first several weeks of last season.
Here are the Caps today as posted on X: I hope Asst. Coach (and New Bedford/Acushnet native) Scotty Allen is on the bench. Hockey fans should see this guy as many times as possible while he’s still coaching just because his story is such a great lesson, as in love your life, treasure your opportunities and put passion into what you do, wherever you do it. Now in his 30th season as a coach in pro hockey, Allen’s career is like an old railroad map across the U.S., cities and outposts, more of the latter.
Today’s rosters are more traditional, as the Bruins are skating more veteran players than the Caps. There was a time when the road team, with too many preseason games, were mailing in their road rosters, and the games lacked intense competition except for the requisite fistic bouts. In recent years, it had gone the other way. Now that the Bruins are a team in flux, this is no longer a bad thing. Nonetheless, today’s lineups reflect a prior era when the home team was almost destined to run it up.
In today’s sports world, coaching staffs and management teams need all the looks they can get. In an albeit-rising salary-cap NHL, these rosters are carefully thought out. If you’re wondering with all the young players the Bruins need to assess why a known commodity like journeyman forward Patrick Brown is a possibility (a strong one considering how many centers the Bruins are dressing), look no further than the example he sets.
Rink Rap reads a lot of complaints about rookies and prospects getting blocked by the likes of Brown and criticize Bruins GM Don Sweeney for signing hardnosed veteran players like Sean Kuraly (or Tanner Jeannot or Mikey Eyssimont), but it’s a simple fact of life that young players need to know what it takes to succeed in the big leagues. The competition will only be that much harder. Having players like Brown (or Michael Callahan on defense) in Providence will be of great benefit to the prospects developing their skills in the AHL. Then there’s all those questions we never think of that management teams are sorting through.
Whatever else, enjoy the Bruins’ preseason opener. Former Bruin Bernie Parent would want that.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 