Bruins
“We’re really happy with his growth from game one to game two.”
Several Bruins youngsters impressed on the TD Garden ice Tuesday, as Boston posted its first win of the preseason with a 4-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.
Riley Tufte, Fabian Lysell, Patrick Brown, and Justin Brazeau all scored for the Bruins, who had 10 different players record at least a point in the win. Joonas Korpisalo and Michael DiPietro split the net for Boston, with Korpisalo stopping all seven shots he faced in his preseason debut with the Bruins.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday’s win on Causeway Street.
Fabian Lysell arrives
Head coach Jim Montgomery isn’t usually one to call out his players.
But after an underwhelming preseason debut on Sunday, Bruins winger Fabian Lysell received a shot across the bow from Montgomery on Tuesday morning.
“He needs to do a little more than he’s done if he wants to make the Bruins, that would be the case for most people that played the previous night,” Montgomery said after morning skate.
Lysell’s first reps this preseason were muted, to say the least. The 21-year-old winger didn’t land a shot on goal in Boston’s 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Sunday, with Lysell failing to make much of an impact with the puck on his stick and getting knocked for a pair of giveaways.
While Lysell has yet to play a regular season game in the NHL, expectations are high for the 2021 first-round pick this fall.
Not only has Lysell seemingly maxed out his production at the AHL level, but his emergence as a legitimate middle-six winger would be welcomed on a Bruins team in need of a scoring punch after the free-agent departure of Jake DeBrusk.
Lysell acknowledged after Tuesday’s game that he didn’t know of Montgomery’s comments earlier that morning. But he certainly played like someone who heeded his coach’s message.
The Bruins winger lit the lamp at 2:59 in the second period, uncorking a sharp shot from the left circle on the power play that sailed past Caps netminder Hunter Shepard to give Boston a 2-0 lead at the time.
It was a long-awaited result from Lysell, who also drew the penalty that led to his team’s fruitful power-play opportunity by driving to the net and getting tripped up by Washington defenseman Hardy Haman Aktell.
“We’re really happy with his growth from game one to game two,” Montgomery said of Lysell’s play. “And how determined he was on pucks, how determined he was in trying to get shots on net, making plays offensively and tracking back defensively. Good game for him.”
While Lysell’s skating talents and O-zone creativity are well-documented, he has been prone to getting knocked off the puck and letting the finer details slip in his game during previous preseason outings.
But Tuesday was a sizable improvement for Lysell, who used his speed to win foot races, and pursue loose pucks skittering around Grade-A ice.
With his 5-foot-11 frame, Lysell isn’t expected to be a wrecking ball on the forecheck, but he can use his agility to his advantage well beyond just trying to dangle past skaters and attempt risky entries over the offensive blue line.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Lysell said of competing for a roster spot. “I think that’s how you guys see it. Maybe before I felt a little bit more pressure. So I think coming in with a little bit of a different mindset definitely helps — just playing your game out there.”
With five preseason games left on the schedule, Lysell still has a long way to go before officially shoring up a spot on Boston’s depth chart. But Tuesday stood as a step in the right direction for the gifted youngster. Now, he has to build off of it moving forward.
Georgii Merkulov also pops
Not to be outdone, another of the Bruins’ most promising forward prospects in Georgii Merkulov had a solid performance on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old forward had a nifty assist on Justin Brazeau’s tally in the third period, setting up his linemate with a slick backhand feed after carrying the puck through the neutral zone.
“I played with Braz for two years now, so I know exactly what he’s gonna do, and he probably knows exactly what I’m going to do,” Merkulov noted.
Merkulov now has two assists in two preseason games with Boston this fall, although his overall performance on Sunday against New York was still relatively understated.
The former Ohio State product was more assertive centering two NHL talents in Tyler Johnson and Justin Brazeau on Tuesday. Montgomery complimented his practice habits and details during practices so far in camp.
The challenge for Merkulov, in Montgomery’s eyes, is having those details translate into games.
“If you practice well, you play well,” Merkulov said. “If you practice lazy and you don’t go all the way, then you’re not going to do anything in the game.”
While other youngsters like Lysell and Matt Poitras might draw most of the headlines among Boston’s next crop of talent during camp, Merkulov might be just as ready as Lysell as far as making a push, especially after recording 120 points over his last 134 games with Providence.
Don’t write him off just yet when it comes to Boston’s vacancy at the third-line center spot.
Solid start for Joonas Korpisalo
He wasn’t necessarily peppered with pucks, but Korpisalo was very strong in his debut with Boston. He stopped all seven of the pucks that came his way.
Korpisalo turned aside two high-danger scoring chances, and was regularly square to pucks while also sealing off the post.
“I thought Korpisalo was really good,” Montgomery said. “He made four, I thought, difficult saves look real easy, and you can just tell he’s composed. He’s big in the net. I think Washington had a lot of opportunities they missed the net on because he’s taking away the angle. So the shooters try and be perfect, they miss the net. It’s a small thing that good goalies do.”
It might have been a small sample size, but getting Korpisalo locked in and feeling good about his game needs to be a priority for Boston, given both his struggles last season in Ottawa and the potential scenario where the Bruins turn to him in their season opener two weeks from now.
“I think it matters,” Montgomery said of the importance of Korpisalo starting off strong. “Your first outing, no matter what your last season was, you want to start on a good foot. You just want to keep building on it. He’s a pretty confident young man.
“I think he knows how good he is, and he’s had so much success in Columbus, and can’t forget what he did in L.A. when he got to L.A. at the [2023] trade deadline.”
Loose Pucks
Despite getting shifted to the wing, Matt Poitras was poised and crafty with the puck while skating on a line with Trent Frederic and Brett Harrison. Even if Boston views Poitras as a long-term pivot, shifting him to wing for now could allow him to simplify his game while encouraging more of his playmaking capabilities down low.
If the Bruins want to embrace a youth movement, Poitras could make a compelling case for himself as a pass-first option on a line with Charlie Coyle and Brad Marchand.
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It was a solid preseason debut for 34-year-old veteran Tyler Johnson, who is currently in camp on a PTO deal. While his skating is still strong at this stage of his career, his details were what stood out on Tuesday. The forward screened Shepard on Lysell’s goal while also feeding Merkulov the puck that led to Brazeau’s goal.
So long as the money is right, it wouldn’t come as surprise if Johnson sticks around as a Swiss Army knife on Boston’s forward corps.
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It should come as little surprise that Brazeau’s goal was generated right at the netfront. But the big-bodied winger also logged 1:43 of shorthanded reps in Tuesday’s win. Brazeau isn’t known as a PK specialist, but taking on that responsibility could increase his odds of cracking the lineup out of camp.
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He benefited from Shepard knocking the tumbling puck into his own net, but good on the 6-foot-6 Tufte for going to the net and getting rewarded with his tally at 11:51 in the first period. Beyond his second-period tally, Patrick Brown’s line (with Joey Abate and Marc McLaughlin) played simple, straight-line hockey all night.
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Hanson native Billy Sweezey continues to dish out punishment. The 28-year-old defenseman now has eight hits through two preseason contests.
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The Bruins will continue their preseason slate on Thursday with a road matchup against the Rangers. Puck drop at Madison Square Garden is set for 7 p.m.
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