Bruins takeaways: Mason Lohrei logs heavy minutes, too many passengers in preseason loss to Sabres

Bruins

Mason Lohrei logged nearly 30 minutes of ice time in the Bruins’ preseason loss to the Sabres.

The Bruins came up short in their second preseason game, falling to the Sabres, 4-1, on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center.

Oskar Steen scored the lone goal for the Bruins at 17:57 in the third period, while starting netminder Kyle Keyser stopped 20 of the 22 shots that came his way in the loss. Michael DiPietro replaced Keyser in the net during the second period, finishing with 11 saves on 12 shots.

Here are a few takeaways from Boston’s preseason bout in Buffalo.

Plenty of passengers 

Boston’s preseason opener against the Rangers was an encouraging showing on multiple fronts, with several prospects in Brandon Bussi, Matthew Poitras, and Johnny Beecher all making strong first impressions out on the ice. 

Tuesday’s follow-up performance in Buffalo was far more subdued. Beyond a select few standouts, Boston’s lineup — especially its younger crop of players — struggled to make a sizable impact in what was a sleepy loss to the Sabres.

Postgame, Jim Montgomery noted on the NESN broadcast that he was impressed with Jesper Boqvist’s skating and two-way game, while Beecher posted another solid performance (15:21 TOI, one drawn penalty, two blocks) as he tries to state his case for the team’s fourth-line center spot.

But it was a quiet evening for large segments of Boston’s forward corps, with Oskar Steen’s late goal serving as the lone spark for an offense that was largely disjointed, especially in the opening 40 minutes of play.

Despite Steen’s strong effort with his netfront tally, a line of him, Danton Heinen, and Georgii Merkulov struggled to make a sizable impact at 5v5 play. In their 4:03 ice time together, the Sabres held the edge in goals scored, 1-0, and shot attempts, 6-1.

It was far from an ideal start for a pair of PTO candidates in Heinen and Alex Chiasson (15:20 TOI, minus-1 rating), while Merkulov had some extended O-zone lulls against Buffalo.

For all of the talk from Montgomery about wanting Boston to play with both pace and a renewed emphasis on physicality, the Bruins logged just nine total hits against Buffalo.

Just two games into preseason action, the Bruins aren’t necessarily rolling out the most stacked lineup at this stage of the summer.

But Montgomery and his staff are looking for AHL regulars, PTO players and some roster-bubble candidates to make their decisions harder when it comes to cutdown day. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for most of Tuesday’s game.

Promise on the blue line

It was far from a stellar night as far as Boston’s D-zone coverage was concerned. But the Bruins did receive a boost on the blue line in the play of both Mason Lohrei and Ian Mitchell.

The Bruins clearly had no qualms with handing Lohrei extended minutes in his preseason debut. The 22-year-old defenseman finished the game with 29:01 of ice time, with Mitchell ranking second on the team in ice time at 19:38.

Lohrei finished with an even rating, two shots on goal and the primary helper on Steen’s goal after firing a puck in through traffic from the point.

As expected, there were some bumps along the way for Lohrei, who will need to continue to iron out his D-zone play and decision-making to handle the pace up in the NHL.

Still, Boston seems committed to throwing Lohrei right into a heavy workload during preseason action. Expect that to continue moving forward, even if he likely needs some seasoning in Providence to open the year.