Bruins Postgame: Montgomery Wants More, Poitras Stepping Up

A tough second-period start led the Boston Bruins to fall to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 in their fourth game of the 2023-24 preseason.

Despite the loss, the Boston Bruins continued to learn about their younger prospects’ potential, specifically the 19-year-old rookie Matt Poitras.

CLUTCH:

Matt Poitras, yet again, continued to put his name on the map in this one. Throughout the game, the 19-year-old showed consistency in his playmaking and support on both sides of the puck. The Boston Bruins 2022 second-round (54th overall) draft pick notched an assist on the power play while winning eight of ten faceoffs.

Regardless of the team’s loss, the Brooklin, Ontario native is putting a difficult decision in front of the Bruins’ front office after the play he has displayed throughout the course of the preseason.

Will they send him back to the OHL with the Guelph Storm or hang onto him and test his skills in a true NHL regular season game?

Matt Poitras is very good at playmaking:

(assists the breakout and then creates a solid chance for Ian Mitchell) pic.twitter.com/Dqe4xX3Mha

— Blake Thorne (@_BlakeThorne) October 2, 2023

BANGER:

Following the Flyers’ early second-period goals, A.J. Greer was on a mission to get some life on the Bruins’ bench. The Joliette, Quebec native laid a huge open-ice hit on Ronnie Attard, hoping to get his boys going. Unfortunately, it did not.

A.J. Greer, big WWE guy: pic.twitter.com/rXr4deAJOJ

— Blake Thorne (@_BlakeThorne) October 3, 2023

DOGHOUSE: 

The Bruins’ shots on goal Monday night will not fly in any regular season game. Granted, it was preseason. Notching 14 shots throughout the game will not make for a winning recipe. The big drought came at the start of the second period, where they did not record a single shot through 10:28 of play.

UNSUNG HERO:

Monday’s unsung hero is Charlie Coyle, simply because of the incredible no-looker assist he recorded on Morgan Geekie’s powerplay goal. The Weymouth, Massachusetts native also drew a penalty, recorded one hit, blocked a shot, and won six out of ten faceoffs.

Morgan Geekie grabs the first of the night…Assisted by Poitras and Coyle and my lord what a beautiful no-looker from Coyle.

1-0 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/kbHiE8omY7

— Blake Thorne (@_BlakeThorne) October 2, 2023

KEY STAT:

The Bruins killed five out of five penalties, and Poitras went 8/10 on faceoffs.

IN THEIR WORDS: “Sway (Jeremy Swayman) did a good job of giving us an opportunity to keep it even, and we got ahead. In the second period, I don’t know why we came out so flat, but we did. And we started taking a lot of penalties because we were turning pucks over, not skating, and ended up in our own end a lot.” – Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery on the Bruins play in the second period.

LINEUP:

Forwards

Jake DeBrusk-Charlie Coyle-Fabian Lysell

Jesper Boqvist-Matthew Poitras-Marc McLaughlin

A.J. Greer-Morgan Geekie-Oskar Steen

Anthony Richard-Patrick Brown-Justin Brazeau

Defensemen

Hampus Lindholm-Ian Mitchell

Michael Callahan-Brandon Carlo

Dan Renouf-Reilly Walsh

Goalies

Jeremy Swayman

Brandon Bussi