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Talking Points: Studnicka, Lysell Shine But Bruins Lose 3-2 To Rangers

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3 years ago

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Boston Bruins

With more likely Providence Bruins and below in the lineup, the Boston Bruins held their own in a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

With likely just five, maybe six, players that will make the Boston Bruins roster out of camp, the Bruins survived an Artemi Panarin show of brilliance without being humiliated and had more signs that not only is the present looking pretty good but the future is bright as well. That being said, parts of that future may need a little more time if the mistakes and lack of composure shown by prospects like Trent Frederic and Brady Lyle continue.

Here’s your BHN Talking Points:

GOLD STAR: Artemi Panarin – As mentioned above, Panarin put on an absolute show against the Boston Bruins Tuesday. The veteran winger and 2020 Hart Trophy winner was simply brilliant with a goal and and two assists. Panarin may not want to be the Rangers captain this season, but he most likely will be their best player by a landslide. If Mika Zibanejad and other Rangers players can pick up the slack, there’s no telling what that Rangers offense can do this season.

 

 

 

BLACK EYE: Trent Frederic – Boston Bruins fans, and some media, really fell in love with Frederic after he took on the NHL’s toughest player, Tom Wilson, not once but twice as a rookie last season. Understood. That being said, anyone still in love with his play after that, is blinded by their Big, Bad Bruins blinders and in complete denial. Since his last bout with Wilson on March 5, Frederic has been simply lost. On Tuesday, Frederic only confirmed why he fell into Bruce Cassidy’s doghouse after that last bout with Wilson. He was a minus -3 with no shots and took a lazy hooking penalty to nullify a Bruins powerplay 3:43 into the third period. At times Frederic seems like he wants to be the team tough guy and at other times he thinks he’s an NHL power forward. At this point in his career, he’s far from the latter and clearly needs to figure himself out.

TURNING POINT: Artemi Panarin’s game-winner with one minute left in the second period proved to be a backbreaker. The Boston Bruins had stormed back to erase a 2-0 deficit with two straight goals from Jack Studnicka (8:46) and Urho Vaakanainen (15:29) in the second period and that seemed to set the tempo for the third period.

 

 

HONORABLE MENTION: Jack Studnicka and Kaapo Kakko. Let’s start with Studnicka. As reported here, the 2017 second-round pick is being given a legit chance to take over the second-line center slot left vacant by David Krejci’s departure this past offseason. In his preseason debut, Studnicka didn’t disappoint as he notched a goal and an assist and had six shots, second only to Tomas Nosek’s seven. After putting on 15 pounds this past offseason, it was clear he can now be heavier on the puck and as he had hoped for, he had more ‘explosiveness’ in his skating.

As for Kakko, he had a brilliant pass on an Anthony Bitetto goal that opened the scoring at 3:35 of the second period and scored one of his own at 7:22 of the middle frame.

 

 

BY THE NUMBERS: 11 – In his first appearance as a Boston Bruins goalie, Linus Ullmark stopped 11 of the 13 shots he faced before Kyle Keyser came in and stopped seven of eight shots faced, including this beauty on Panarin:

 

 

QUOTE TO NOTE: “He managed the puck well,” Cassidy said of Studnicka after the game. “I don’t think anybody early on was hard enough on it once when we did get it back in the O-zone and that’s where their (Studnicka’s) line started to do a little bit more of that, find their outlets whether that’s low to high so we could space a little bit to get some more room.

Then all of a sudden now they’re (Rangers) throwing pucks out of the zone, changing, and that’s where the game opened up for us,” Cassidy continued. “Good spot for Jack, finishes. (He) had a couple of other chances around the net. … Good for Jack in that regard. Like I said, I think their line has the ability to create offense and eventually they did and did a good job for us.”

 

 

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