The Bruins’ 6-1 win over the Utah Mammoth bought them another game without Charlie McAvoy, but it also sharpened the problem waiting on the other side of his return: somebody has to come out.
Boston is now 3-2 with McAvoy sidelined, which means the club will finish at least .500 during his suspension. That’s a decent floor. The roster squeeze that comes with getting him back is the tricky part, and it’s the kind of decision Marco Sturm would rather avoid.
After Thursday night, though, Frederic Brunet and Mason Lohrei made the conversation a lot harder.
Brunet has been a revelation since entering the lineup. Even in the 4-1 loss in his first game, he looked comfortable, and he’s only raised his stock since then.
On Thursday, he was quarterbacking a top power-play unit that went three-for-four, and McAvoy would naturally reclaim that role when he returns. Still, if that unit keeps clicking on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers, Sturm may think twice before touching it.
Brunet has also done enough at five-on-five to make a healthy scratch feel hard to defend, with the only obvious knock being that he’s the rookie in a veteran group.
Lohrei is making his own case too. He had a chance to run the power play while McAvoy was out, but the results there weren’t especially strong. Even so, the 25-year-old has clearly leaned into the defensive side of his game this season, and with McAvoy unavailable he has arguably been Boston’s best defenseman.
If Lohrei had also struggled in his own zone, the choice would be easy. That hasn’t happened. At this point, he looks too useful to simply shove aside.
So if someone is headed to the press box with Jonathan Aspirot, the straightforward answer is Connor Clifton.
That won’t sit well with everyone in the Bruins fanbase, especially the Cliffy Hockey crowd, but the numbers and the eye test both point in that direction. Clifton hasn’t been a disaster to start the season, yet he and Nikita Zadorov have spent too much time pinned in their own end, and they’ve been fortunate not to have more goals charged against them. When Clifton and Zadorov are on the ice, Boston is being outchanced 44 to 29.
McAvoy’s return also leaves Sturm with a second layer of choices. If Clifton sits, the Bruins can pair Brunet with McAvoy on the top pair, which was already taking shape in the preseason, and leave Lohrei on his weak side with Zadorov. Or they can keep Brunet and Lohrei together and form a top pair of Zadorov and McAvoy.
That second option comes with baggage. Zadorov and McAvoy wasn’t the cleanest fit last season, and the underlying numbers eventually pushed Boston in another direction. Brunet has shown enough to suggest he could handle time with the Bruins’ best defenseman, but the real question is whether he can keep this level up.
In Other News...
Bruins Youth Movement Suddenly Looks More Real Than Ever
Over the past 20 months, the Bruins have taken a hard turn from the veteran core that defined their recent past, trading away established names and leaning into a younger, more flexible roster. The additions of Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, Casey Mittelstadt, James Hagens and JJ Peterka, along with the hiring of Marco Sturm as head coach, have given the organization a different look and a different timeline, and the early returns have been encouraging enough to make the plan feel less like a reset and more like a real direction.
A strong start to the season, capped by a 5-1 win over the Flyers, only adds to that sense of momentum. Boston still has roster business to sort out, with decisions ahead on pending free agents and the possibility of more movement before the picture settles, but for the first time in a while the youth movement does not feel theoretical. It feels like something the Bruins can actually build around, even if the next few weeks will say a lot about how far theyre willing to push it. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Face One Big Pregame Decision As Flyers Come To Boston
The Bruins wrap up their three-game homestand Thursday night against the Flyers at TD Garden, riding the lift of a recent win that featured production from multiple scorers and a strong special teams showing. It has been a useful early stretch for Boston, which has already seen enough balance in its lineup to feel like there is more than one way to win on a given night.
Philadelphia arrives in Boston still looking for answers, having had a rough first handful of games offensively and on special teams. The bigger Bruins question is still a pregame one, with the lineup and goaltending picture not yet fully settled, and the decision in net carrying a little extra weight as Boston tries to close the homestand on a clean note. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Head Into Road Trip With A Lot More To Like Than Expected
The Bruins left TD Garden with a convincing 5-1 win over the Flyers, and the larger takeaway was how many different parts of the roster chipped in. Boston moved to 4-2-0, got goals from Pavel Zacha, Mason Lohrei, Marat Khusnutdinov, Casey Mittelstadt and Fraser Minten, and saw Jeremy Swayman turn aside 14 shots in a game that never felt especially dangerous for the home side.
Now comes the part that will tell a lot more about what this start really means: a four-game road trip beginning in San Jose. Early-season home wins can cover over a few things, but the Bruins are heading west with some momentum and a deeper scoring mix than expected, which makes the trip a useful early test of whether this group can carry those contributions away from Boston. [Read more 🡒]