The Bruins fell to the Rangers, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night in their second preseason game.
The Bruins' top forwards and defensemen once again did not play. Here are five takeaways from the game:
1. The Jesper Froden-Jack Studnicka-Fabian Lysell line was Tuesday’s designated “fun line to watch,” and they didn’t disappoint. Studnicka, in particular, looked great. He was all over the ice and finished second among all players with six shots on goal.
Studnicka scored the Bruins’ first goal of the night midway through the second when he entered the offensive zone, dished over to Lysell, then got a nice pass back and buried it past Igor Shesterkin. He also assisted on the second, winning an offensive-zone faceoff clean back to Urho Vaakanainen.
Studnicka, who has gotten a lot of repetitions with Taylor Hall and Craig Smith in training camp, is getting a real chance to push for an opening night roster spot, and he seems to be making the most of it. He’ll need to keep it going the rest of the preseason, but sending him down to Providence may not be an easy decision.
Froden and Lysell, meanwhile, both built off strong preseason openers on Sunday. Lysell had the aforementioned nice assist on Studnicka’s goal and once again didn’t really look out of place. He did make a couple passes that were a little too soft, but that's a fixable problem. Going to the Vancouver Giants of the WHL is still a nice development path for him this season, but you can’t help but feel like he might be able to hold his own in the AHL.
For Froden, it was notable that the right shot flipped over to his off wing and played on the left side Tuesday night. The Bruins have a lot of versatile players in their bottom six, and Froden having some positional versatility could help his case to either win a roster spot or put himself in position to be the first wing called up from Providence once the season gets going.
2. It was an up-and-down night for the Bruins’ likely fourth line of Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar. The trio have skated together most of training camp so far, and they served as the de facto top line Tuesday night with the Bruins’ top nine forwards all sitting out.
They got pinned in their own zone a little too much in the first period, but then they started to create some real chances in the offensive zone in the second, including a great point-blank chance from Nosek that Shesterkin turned aside.
Nosek and Frederic also displayed some good chemistry on a couple timing plays on the power play, although they obviously won’t be playing on the power play when all the Bruins’ top forwards are in the lineup. Nosek, in particular, was clearly one of the Bruins’ best players on the night. He finished with a game-high seven shots on goal and also drew a penalty in the third.
The good feelings for the line gave way to a major negative late in the second period, though, as Lazar committed a bad turnover in the neutral zone that led to an Artemi Panarin breakaway and a 3-2 Rangers lead. Frederic also took a lazy hooking penalty while the Bruins were on the power play in the third, so that wasn’t good either.
“They can be better, that’s for sure,” Cassidy said of the line. “Those guys have been in the league. A little more the wingers. I thought Freddy didn’t move his feet nearly well enough to be effective. A couple of chances off the rush got blocked because he didn’t separate a little more to create a little time for himself. For a line that’s going to be an o-zone puck possession line, there’s some work to do there for them. They lost a puck in the second period there that led to Panarin’s goal, where they just need to be a little harder. I think they had their moments where they did attack, but other times they’re going to have to work off each other better.”
3. Speaking of up-and-down nights, it was quite a rollercoaster for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen. The Bruins’ 2017 first-round pick was very noticeable, for better and for worse.
Vaakanainen took an early roughing penalty. He was a split-second too slow on both of the Rangers’ first two goals. On the first, he got caught watching Panarin a little too long and didn’t pick up goal-scorer Anthony Bitetto until he’d already taken the shot. On the second, Kaapo Kakko reacted a little quicker to a deflected, fluttering shot, got position on Vaakanainen, and banged in the loose puck.
Late in the second period, Vaakanainen made up for it by stepping into a slapper off a Studnicka faceoff win and ripping a shot past Tyler Wall.
Vaakanainen entered camp as probably the ninth or 10th defenseman on the Bruins’ depth chart, and his two preseason games probably haven’t done much to move him any higher. After the game, Cassidy said he was encouraged more by Vaakanainen’s game Tuesday vs. Sunday.
“I thought against Washington he slapped pucks around a lot for a guy who’s played games and has a good idea what to expect,” Cassidy said. “So today he had a little more composure, helped his partner out a number of times to settle things down, make a tape-to-tape pass, get us out of our end. It was nice to see him score. The other night in Washington, a couple of his shots got blocked. … I just thought in general, his mobility to get to pucks and make an outlet was better than Washington. Usually means he’s engaged in the game more -- more assertive, better gaps.”
4. A couple other players battling to improve their position in the call-up pecking order didn’t really help their cause Tuesday. Zach Senyshyn made a poor decision on a second-period power play to settle for a long, easily saved wrist shot when he had reinforcements coming off the bench. He also took a lazy hooking penalty in the third.
Just 19 seconds after Senyshyn’s penalty, Anton Blidh took a foolish tripping penalty that gave the Rangers a five-on-three for 1:41. Blidh could’ve been called for another penalty later in the period when he appeared to intentionally snow the Rangers’ goalie, Wall.
You don’t want to bury anyone after one game, but Senyshyn and Blidh are two players who have been in the organization for a while now, and this isn’t going to help them break through in a crowded forward group.
5. Linus Ullmark was fine in his first Bruins game, and Kyle Keyser looked really good in relief. Ullmark got the start and stopped 11 of the 13 shots he faced in a period and a half of play. Both goals he gave up would’ve been tough saves, so it’s hard to fault him too much. Most of the saves he did make were fairly routine, although a couple of his rebounds were juicier than you'd like.
Keyser only faced eight shots and allowed one goal on a Panarin breakaway. He made a couple highlight-reel saves, though, stopping a Lauri Pajuniemi one-timer on a Rangers power play and robbing Panarin on a second breakaway.
Keyser enters the season as the No. 3 goalie in the organization, which is obviously a key spot in case anything happens to either Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman. Finally healthy after battling multiple concussions the last couple years, Keyser could be poised for a strong season in Providence.
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