It was only a couple of months ago the much-maligned Boston Bruins draft-and-development system was getting crushed as the NHL’s worst for the second offseason in a row. They were ranked dead last by The Athletic and didn’t have a single young player named in the top 150 NHL prospects around the league while dinging Mason Lohrei for his "heavy skating."
It all looked bleak for an aging Black and Gold group that was waving goodbye to retiring centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci and was in bad enough salary cap shape that they were forced to trade Taylor Hall and looming free agent Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks. On top of that, entering this season they had only player (Jakub Lauko) that had logged NHL games dating all the way back to their 2018 NHL draft class.
But a funny thing happened for a transitioning Boston Bruins team that’s winning with defense and goaltending rather than overwhelming teams with their offense and their depth as they did amidst a record-breaking regular season last year.
The other clear narrative for this season’s edition of the Boston Bruins is that the B’s youthful talent pipeline was in far better shape than the puck gurus allowed this past summer. A 19-year-old center named Matt Poitras stepped into Boston’s top-6 center void at their most desperate hour of need, and has been excellent with three goals and five points in 10 games while topping 15 minutes of ice time per game.
Speedy, big former first-round pick Johnny Beecher has stepped in and won the B’s fourth-line center job and is the only remnant of an opening night energy line now that Milan Lucic and Lauko are out with injuries. Beecher only has a single assist in 10 games, but he’s been a solid penalty killer and energy player that’s been physical, solid with his faceoffs and good with his details in a pivotal role for Boston.
And in Thursday night’s 3-2 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden, Mason Lohrei made a noteworthy NHL debut stepping in for the suspended Charlie McAvoy and was “dynamite” in an impressive divisional win. The Bruins were missing McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort from their blueline against one of the NHL’s most electric offensive groups in Toronto, but the B’s did not miss a single beat with a 22-year-old college kid pinching himself that he was lining up against players like Matthews, Marner and William Nylander.
“When you’re hitting tape and playing fast and playing quick, and getting up ice, it’s just good for your confidence. I felt pretty comfortable early,” admitted Lohrei. “I kind of just tried to build off that.
“It’s so special being out there playing with this great organization and such a great group of guys. It was unbelievable.”
Thursday night turning into a shootout win was due in large part to Lohrei’s brilliant opening game where he notched his first NHL point and logged 21:28 of ice time as part of a top-4 crew that the Bruins rode to victory.
"He was dynamite. He played really well," said Jim Montgomery of the 22-year-old rookie’s NHL debut. "His poise with the puck in all three zones was very noticeable. He made a lot of intelligent hockey plays."
The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder skated well and moved the puck with precision and skill, and executed a nice point feed to find Brandon Carlo activating down the side boards before he found Pavel Zacha in the slot for Boston’s first goal of the game.
Lohrei was just as good on the defensive end, as well, against a Toronto team that had Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner operating at optimal levels. The young D-man finished third on the Bruins in shorthanded ice time (1:43) behind just Hampus Lindholm and Charlie Coyle, and was a considerable factor in keeping Toronto’s high-wattage power play off the board in the win.
In essence, Lohrei looked every bit like the impressive player he was during the preseason where he played like a top-4 NHL defenseman just waiting for his chance with the Black and Gold.
“You could see in training camp that [Lohrei] is gifted," said Brad Marchand. "Big kid, skates well, really smart with the puck. What I liked about his game tonight is he didn't try to do too much. That's where you can get in trouble a little bit. When you have that kind of talent and ability, you sometimes want to try to do too much and he didn't do that. He made strong plays, competed hard and took what was in front of him. He had a really good game."
Clearly, they will need Lohrei to keep taking what’s in front of him and maintain his current level of performance with McAvoy still suspended for the next three games, and Grzelcyk out with an upper body injury for the next few weeks. If he does that during his brief stint, it’s going to be awfully interesting to see what kind of decisions face the Boston Bruins with an overstuffed defensemen group that might just be able to afford one subtraction for salary cap relief purposes.
That will be a story for another day, though, as Thursday was Lohrei’s announcement to the world that he’s NHL-ready.
There’s no reason to think he won’t be able to do it after a strong training camp, just like everybody has come to expect Poitras standing out nightly in a featured role for the Boston Bruins, and Beecher having settled into a fourth line energy role that the B’s expected to go to a veteran player in training camp.
Instead Poitras, Beecher and Lohrei have excelled early and showed the entire NHL that there was much more going on with the B’s talent pipeline than the naysayers led us all to believe over the summer. Now that young talent is helping translate into wins for the Black and Gold when absolutely everybody thought there would be struggles coming out of the starting gate with a group full of fresh faces.
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