Talking Points: Swayman Brilliant In Defeat For Boston Bruins

PHILADELPHIA – Here are the talking points from the Boston Bruins 2-1 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center.

GOLD STAR: Jeremy Swayman continues to be very encouraging in the preseason as he was the best player on the ice for either team stopping 34 shots and practically willed a mostly young Bruins squad into OT against a lot of regulars for the Flyers. He stopped a pair of breakaways that resulted in delayed penalty calls on Nick Wolff and made 16 saves while getting peppered in the second period as the Flyers were essentially on the power play for most of the second half of the period. While it’s going to be 10 plus days until the regular season begins, Swayman looks completely ready to go and he’s totally built on what he showed in the second half of last season. The feeling continues to grow that the Boston Bruins have something special between the pipes in the Alaskan youngster, and that he should the No. 1 guy right out of the gate this year.

That was no crossbar, @BroadStHockey. That was the power of Swayman. Your glasses might need a new prescription pic.twitter.com/o2nuVrzp64

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 4, 2021

BLACK EYE: Some young players, in the final tune-up for the young guys that aren’t going be on the NHL roster on opening night, showed that they need some time in the AHL to continue developing their games. Nick Wolff took a pair of penalties where he was trailing on a breakaway, didn’t shut down the play and then handed the Flyers a power play after Jeremy Swayman made the initial save on the breakaway shot. Jack Ahcan wasn’t able to generate much offensively despite getting into some decent spots where he could make plays at the blue line. Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen had just one shot on net apiece even though they did both register assists on Jack Studnicka’s hard-working power play goal. The game should act as a motivating force that those youngsters still have things to work on at the AHL level.

TURNING POINT: The Bruins simply didn’t have enough to make things last for very long in overtime. They had a chance to win it, though, as Jakub Lauko feathered a perfectly timed pass to Jack Studnicka cutting to the net, and the Bruins center somehow didn’t get a stick on the puck as it bounced away from danger. That was it for the Bruins unfortunately as the Flyers turned the puck the other way and burned John Moore defensively for the Ivan Provorov overtime game-winner. As it was the Flyers outshot the Bruins 2-0 in the overtime session and deserved to win after tilting the ice through much of the game.

HONORABLE MENTION: Jack Studnicka really couldn’t have done much more in this preseason to earn himself an NHL job. The 22-year-old center scored Boston’s only goal when he leapt across the cross and backhanded a loose puck after Jacob Lauko rang one off the post, and otherwise drove Boston’s best line throughout the game. Studnicka finished with a team-high five shots on net and eight shot attempts and had the goal in 16:36 of ice time while winning 8-of-15 draws and generally playing well against the big boys from the Flyers lineup. Certainly, somebody can always be better, but Studnicka has shown in this training camp that he is NHL-ready right now.

BY THE NUMBERS: 7 – the number of hits for Trent Frederic, a team-high, as he really showed some snarl and physicality that the B’s are looking for out of him.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “I liked his game. I liked his commitment to playing a 200-foot game and how he managed pucks, he did not turn the puck over like he has in the past. Do we push somebody to the wing or not? That will be a conversation.” -Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy on Jack Studnicka’s training camp after he scored again on Monday night.