The Bruins wrapped up their preseason with a 5-3 loss to the Devils on Saturday. Next up: Opening night Wednesday in Washington.
The Bruins have until 5 p.m. Monday to finalize their roster, and still have some key questions to answer. Here are five of the biggest:
A.J. Greer goes 1-on-1 with The Skate Pod
1. Will Taylor Hall be ready?
Hall suffered some sort of upper-body injury last Saturday. Jim Montgomery said the next day that he was considered week-to-week, but later noted that Hall was pushing to return earlier than that.
Wednesday will be a week and a half, so just from a timeline perspective, it would seem possible. However, Hall had not yet been cleared for contact as of Saturday. That will probably need to happen Monday or Tuesday if he’s going to have any chance of playing Wednesday.
With Brad Marchand already out until late November, it would obviously not be ideal for the Bruins to open the season down their top two left wings. Pavel Zacha will fill one spot, as has been planned all along. Filling the other would require either Jake DeBrusk to flip from right wing to left, or one of Nick Foligno, Trent Frederic or A.J. Greer to get bumped up into a top-six role they’re not really suited for.
2. Who’s playing with Patrice Bergeron?
This is related to No. 1, because until Hall’s injury, Bergeron appeared to be locked into having Zacha and DeBrusk on his wings. But then Hall went down and Zacha got moved to David Krejci and David Pastrnak’s line. That trio of Czechs has clicked pretty well, but Montgomery has been left to figure out the best fit with Bergeron and DeBrusk.
Foligno got some practice time there, with DeBrusk staying on the right. Craig Smith started Saturday’s game there, with DeBrusk flipping to the left. Greer finished Saturday’s game there, playing his off side on the right.
Of those three, or any other options, Smith would seem to make the most sense. He has plenty of experience in a top-six role, he’s played with Bergeron before, and he’s had a good preseason. The DeBrusk-Bergeron-Smith line was pretty dominant Saturday before getting split up, as the Bruins out-attempted the Devils 9-1 when they were on the ice. Montgomery said after the game that he liked Smith there, but that he also wanted to see how Greer did on that line.
You would prefer to have your top six a little more settled than this so close to the opener, but at least the early returns on DeBrusk-Bergeron-Smith were encouraging. That’s why we would bet on Montgomery going back to that combo on Wednesday if Hall is out.
3. What does the bottom six look like?
If you think the top six is still a bit unsettled, wait until you see the bottom six. If Smith does indeed move up to the Bergeron line, then the only settled spot in the bottom six at the moment is Charlie Coyle as third-line center.
After that, well, everything else is up for grabs. The Bruins want Frederic to be the third-line left wing, but he’s had an inconsistent preseason and has been dropped down to the fourth line at times. Greer got moved up to replace him, but now Greer might actually play on the right if Smith gets moved up.
In the battle for fourth-line center, Jack Studnicka had a better preseason than Tomas Nosek on an individual level, but Nosek centered a fourth line with Foligno and Jakub Lauko on Saturday that had a strong game, with Montgomery calling them the team’s best line for the night.
Lauko, by the way, once seemed like a long shot to even make the team, but now appears to be a very real possibility to play opening night following a stellar preseason. There’s also Chris Wagner, who had a strong preseason of his own and has at least temporarily staved off another demotion to Providence.
If I had to guess right now, here’s what I think the Bruins’ opening night lineup will be:
DeBrusk - Bergeron - Smith
Zacha - Krejci - Pastrnak
Frederic - Coyle - Greer
Foligno - Nosek - Lauko
4. Will they sign Anton Stralman?
Doing so would certainly create a logjam on the back end once Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy return. McAvoy is out until probably the end of November, but Grzelcyk could be back soon, as he has already ditched the non-contact jersey in practice.
If it were just a numbers game, you’d probably say the Bruins could afford to release Stralman from his PTO and let him look for opportunities elsewhere. But it’s not just a numbers game; it’s also a real game.
The Bruins have to decide if they think Stralman provides an upgrade to their back end. If they do, they have to decide if it’s enough of an upgrade to make it worth it to add another cap hit to their books and force them to deal with said logjam in the not-too-distant future.
It would certainly seem like Stralman can help the Bruins. The 36-year-old played like the steady, reliable veteran that he is this preseason, and his 71.4% Corsi-for percentage was tops on the team. His poise, especially in his own zone, was a welcome addition, especially as some other Bruins blue-liners struggled with D-zone coverages at times.
Derek Forbort, Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril, in particular, were a little too inconsistent this preseason. If Stralman isn’t here, all three are playing every night until Grzelcyk returns. Whether that’s a risk worth taking might depend on how long Grzelcyk is out, which we on the outside just don’t know right now.
5. What do the D pairs look like?
As you can probably guess, this depends on what happens with Stralman. We got a look at how Montgomery could line things up without Stralman on Saturday, when he had Hampus Lindholm with Brandon Carlo, Mike Reilly with Zboril, and Forbort with Clifton.
Aside from Lindholm and Carlo, the results weren’t pretty. Reilly, who otherwise had a good preseason, was on the ice for three five-on-five goals against. Zboril was on for two and also committed the turnover that handed New Jersey its empty-netter. Forbort and Clifton had a miscommunication on one goal against, and Clifton got undressed by Jack Hughes on another.
All in all, it was a pretty good argument for signing Stralman to help steady the ship. If the Bruins do, he could line up next to Lindholm, which is where he spent much of training camp. Then Carlo would probably pair with Reilly, and Zboril, Forbort and Clifton would be left to duke it out for two spots.
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