Boston Bruins
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie scored for the Bruins, who will open their season on Tuesday.
The Boston Bruins closed out their preseason slate on Friday, with Marco Sturm rolling out a roster against the Capitals that might look very similar to the lineup that Boston showcases in its season opener next Tuesday at TD Garden.
Ideally, that lineup fares a bit better than Friday’s squad, as Boston fell to the Caps, 3-2, in overtime at Capital One Arena.
After a slow start, Boston’s big guns made it a game in Washington, with a pair of third-period goals from Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak forcing overtime — only for Jordan Kyrou to win it for Washington just 11 seconds into the extra period.
Jeremy Swayman earned the nod in net, stopping 32 of the 35 shots that came his way.
Here are four takeaways from Boston’s preseason finale:
Little clarity further down depth chart
The good news? Several of Boston’s top players — including Swayman, Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha, and Geekie — did enough heavy lifting late to allow Boston to escape with a point (had this been a regular-season contest, of course).
The Bruins followed a pretty familiar script as last year on Friday — stay off the mat behind a strong showing from Swayman, and land enough punches from your big guns up front to have a chance to seize a point or two.
Boston knows what it has in key cogs like Swayman and Pastrnak, while JJ Peterka has been as advertised as a fleet-footed playmaker — especially on a power play where he recorded the primary helper on Pastrnak’s tally.
But with roster cuts looming, Friday’s game didn’t exactly shift the fortunes of several players on the Bruins’ roster bubble entering the final days of training camp — nor does it clear up several of the roster logjams that Sturm and his staff still need to address.
“We have a lot of bodies,” Sturm said at Warrior Ice Arena Friday morning. “Today and tomorrow, there will be some movement, some decisions that have to be made. But it’s a good thing; it’s healthy. Hopefully it helps the players, too.
“Somebody will be not happy, but I think this is the time to kind of learn about yourself. Do I push a little extra or do I just give up? Those are the moments now when you have a bigger camp, a lot of players around – we want to see that extra push out of them.”
As crunch time gets closer with Boston’s roster, there are still several questions over who exactly will snag the spare forward spots on this club — especially with Matt Poitras’s lower-body injury further complicating things.
Henri Jokiharju appears to be the odd man out on the blue line and could join Jordan Harris on waivers in the coming days. But Boston’s patchwork defensive pairings (sans Charlie McAvoy) still appear to be a work in progress.
Connor Clifton has had an up-and-down preseason so far next to Nikita Zadorov, while Jonathan Aspirot and Hampus Lindholm have been prone to some ill-timed penalties.
It hasn’t been the strongest fall so far for Aspirot, but the second-year pro did find his game in the third period — outmuscling Cole Hutson on a rush chance and playing the simple, hard-nosed game that made him such a pleasant surprise last year.
On a positive note, Mason Lohrei was steady in his return to the lineup after getting banged up earlier this week. For now, he seems to be the favorite to open the year on the third D pairing — but will it be next to Aspirot or Frederic Brunet, who sat out of Friday’s matchup?
There may not necessarily be any revelatory roster cuts or waiver-wire moves in the coming days.
But it’s all but a given that the forward lines and pairs that Sturm rolls out on Tuesday against the Rangers are going to be tweaked and reshuffled throughout the next few weeks on a roster still in flux.
Good and bad on special teams
Pastrnak’s blistering shot allowed the Bruins to cash in on one of their three chances on the power play Friday, with both Zacha at the net front and Peterka at the right elbow in particular doing a good job of moving the puck and finding passing lanes against Washington.
Getting Pastrnak to uncork that one-timer more often would be a welcome sight for the Bruins — but it only becomes a tangible option if other shot-ready options like Peterka and Geekie at the bumper continue to test netminders.
There shouldn’t be too much concern over how Boston’s man advantage — especially one run by Steve Spott — should fare this season, especially after the addition of a gifted forward like Peterka.
But Boston’s PK didn’t fare as well, with the Caps tallying all three of their goals on Friday on their man advantage.
Sean Kuraly hasn’t had the most impressive preseason so far, and there’s a legitimate case to be made that his role as Boston’s fourth-line center should be challenged by either Poitras or Dans Locmelis.
But his shorthanded contributions were missed on Friday, with Washington generating nine high-danger scoring chances in their 4:50 of 5-on-4 reps against Boston.
New Bruins assistant coach Matt McIlvane — who now runs Boston’s PK — has his work cut out for him, as the Bruins ranked 28th in the league with just a 75.7 percent success rate in 2025-26.
That has to improve for a Bruins team that has historically prided itself on being a stingy stalwart in the defensive zone.
Zacha is setting himself up for a major payday
When it comes to identifying potential areas of regression on this Bruins club, there was plenty of skepticism entering a new year in terms of banking on Boston’s second line — anchored by Pavel Zacha — once again holding court as one of the best forward trios in the league.
Not only does the free-agent departure of Viktor Arvidsson loom large after serving as the motor on that line, but there was plenty of uncertainty over whether or not Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt’s strong campaigns in 2025-26 were a sign of things to come — or an unsustainable outlier.
After all, the Bruins outscored opponents by a whopping 48-29 margin in Zacha and Mittelstadt’s 701 minutes of 5-on-5 reps together last year.
That lopsided goal differential may not be realistic, but both Zacha and Mittelstadt’s chemistry has clearly remained intact this fall.
The line of Zacha, Mittelstadt, and Geekie was Boston’s most consistent forward grouping on Wednesday, with Boston holding a 10-2 edge in scoring chances during that line’s 11:07 of 5-on-5 ice time.
Geekie might have been the one to beat Logan Thompson just 3:40 into the third period, but it was Zacha who did all of the heavy lifting with some strong puck protection down low and a slick feed into Grade-A ice.
Zacha also recorded the secondary helper on Pastrnak’s power-play tally, while also winning 10-of-17 faceoffs (58.8 percent).
It’s just the preseason, but Zacha looks a whole lot like the player who emerged as a legitimate second-line center last season for Boston — which could make things interesting as far as his expected pricey next contract.
It’s unclear whether or not the Bruins want to be the ones willing to pay that price, or if they have an appetite for moving him — both to avoid that looming contract and to potentially acquire another impact player in the process (say, Kirill Marchenko?).
Youth report
Friday stood as the final chance for several youngsters to skate their claim for an NHL roster spot, headlined by both James Hagens and Dans Locmelis.
It was a sizable ask for both youngsters on Friday, especially after the duo skated in Thursday’s preseason loss to the Flyers.
But Hagens once again didn’t hurt his stock, landing two shots on goal in 13:55 of ice time. Hagens and his linemates — much like the rest of Boston’s forward grouping — struggled to string together solid shifts in the first 40 minutes, but had a few quality looks in the third period of play.
It’d be a major surprise if Boston doesn’t roll out a third line of Hagens, Fraser Minten, and Marat Khusnutdinov on Tuesday night against the Rangers.
Locmelis had a bit of a quieter night on a line with Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic, but the refined, two-way game and the pace he operates at are pretty evident.
If Poitras is destined for an injured reserve designation out of the gate this year, Locmelis could be a short-term stopgap if Sturm wants to keep a young center on the roster behind Kuraly on the depth chart.
But if Poitras is good to go before Tuesday, Boston will likely send Locmelis (who is waivers-exempt) down to Providence to log top-line minutes and call on him when needed once injuries arise.
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