The Bruins are finally back on the ice for game action, and their first preseason test comes Sunday night against the Capitals at TD Garden.
This one arrives with a few wrinkles. Under the new CBA, the NHL is moving to an 84-game regular season and trimming the preseason from six games to four.
Veterans with more than 100 NHL games are limited to two preseason appearances. Boston and Washington will also see each other again Friday in a road game, giving both clubs a two-game mini-series to open exhibition play.
Neither team has made cuts yet after three days of training camp, and this is the fourth straight preseason meeting between the Bruins and Capitals. The games don’t count, but Boston has gone 2-2-1 in those matchups over that stretch.
Because the Red Sox and Patriots are both on Sunday afternoon, this Bruins game won’t land on the usual NESN or 98.5 spot. Judd Sirott will have the call on NESNplus, with Ryan Johnston handling the radio broadcast on 102.5.
On the Bruins side, the morning skate is off the schedule Sunday. The two camp groups scrimmaged Saturday, and the kid line of James Hagens, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Fraser Minten drew strong praise from Marco Sturm.
Sturm stopped short of locking it in, but called it a possibility. A few hours later, Boston added all three to the roster for the opener.
Sturm also kept the camp combinations and pairings intact rather than shaking things up for the first preseason lineup. The four projected lines have all been used over the last three days at Warrior Ice Arena, with one extra forward and one extra defenseman on the roster.
Sturm is scheduled to speak around 3:45 PM, with the starting goalie and any additional updates expected after that. Cuts are likely to come Sunday, with the Providence Bruins opening camp Monday.
Boston’s roster for the game includes forwards Alex Steeves, James Hagens, Mark Kastelic, Ivan Ivan, Matt Poitras, Sean Kuraly, Joey Abate, Riley Duran, Attilio Biasca, Lukas Reichel, Jake Schmaltz, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Fraser Minten; defensemen Mason Lohrei, Henri Jokiharju, Frederic Brunet, Jordan Harris, Jonathan Aspirot, Ty Gallagher, and Charlie McAvoy; and goalies Michael DiPietro and Jiri Patera.
Washington’s group features forwards Lynden Lakovic, Boone Jenner, Justin Sourdif, Josh Dunne, Tom Wilson, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Petr Sikora, Anthony Beauvillier, Jonny Brodzinski, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Bogdan Trineyev, Alex Tuch, and Alex Suzdalev, plus defensemen Matt Roy, Justin Holl, Jakob Chychrun, Jeremie Biakabutuka, Cole Hutson, Dylan McIlrath, and Vincent Desharnais.
The Bruins’ projected forward lines have Hagens centering Minten and Khusnutdinov on the top unit, followed by Steeves with Kuraly and Kastelic, Biasca with Poitras and Reichel, and Abate with Schmaltz and Duran. Ivan Ivan is the extra forward. On defense, Brunet is paired with McAvoy, Aspirot with Lohrei, and Harris with Jokiharju, with Gallagher as the extra blue-liner.
Boston’s preseason schedule continues Tuesday at home against Philadelphia, then Thursday on the road against the Flyers.
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Peterka has said he feels comfortable in that spot, and the Bruins are clearly looking for a grouping that can sharpen the teams offensive efficiency. The longer those trios stay intact, the more they start to look less like an experiment and more like the shape of things when the season opens. [Read more 🡒]