Young Bruins Frederic Brunet and Matt Poitras to make season debut Monday night against Senators – The Boston Globe
Matt Poitras, the sensation of the club’s 2023 training camp, also will see his first duty of the season. Sturm moved the 22-year-old center into Sean Kuraly’s spot between big bodies Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic on the fourth line.
And the No. 1 power-play unit, which Lohrei has quarterbacked of late, welcomed back Pavel Zacha, the Czech center working with fellow forwards Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie, and David Pastrnak.
Newcomer JJ Peterka, previously a PP1 contributor, shifted to the second unit, joining Casey Mittelstadt, Fraser Minten, and James Hagens. Hampus Lindholm worked the QB spot.
Through three games, the Bruins (2-1-0) were blanked in all six of their power-play opportunities. Entering Monday night, they were among 10 teams yet to pot one on the advantage.
“I’m not really concerned,” said Sturm, asked after the morning workout about the overall special teams play. “But at some point, I think we need a spark.”
Sturm added that he “really liked” his club’s play at even strength in the first three games.
“Special teams,” he mused, “we just got to crank it up.”
The Bruins also entered the night a lowly 57.1 percent on the penalty kill — better than only Detroit (50 percent) and Los Angeles (28.6 percent).
Eager to get going
Brunet was beaming following the traditional day-of-game workout. Other than one game with the varsity in the 2024-25 season, Brunet toiled the past three seasons at AHL Providence.
Bruins management is hopeful he is here to stay.
“I think starting at home is going to be a good experience for me,” noted the 6-foot-3-inch Brunet, who was the 132nd selection in the 2022 draft. “And it’s good to be a little bit nervous.”
Sturm is confident he’ll see Brunet grow into multiple roles and log high minutes, but planned a steady five-on-five diet for Monday.
“We’ll see how it ends up,” said Sturm. “I think the start [and the score] will tell a little bit. This is a kid we want to develop the right way, so I’m not going to throw him in if he’s not ready for [certain] situations. We think very highly of him and we want him to get better every day.”
Poitras has been here before. It was his 70th NHL game since making the club straight out of junior hockey in 2023-24, following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
Jeannot and Kastelic provided a comfort factor for Poitras in his return.
“I played with them a little bit last year,” said Poitras. “It’s pretty simple — two guys that work really hard and are hard on the forecheck.”
Poitras spent nearly all of last season with Providence, finishing fifth in points with a line of 13-31–44 in 69 games.
Odd man out
Sturm acknowledged that Kuraly “is not happy today,” being asked to move out of the lineup three games into the season.
“He’s a veteran,” noted Sturm, “and he’s going to push and try to get back in the lineup.”
Realistically, fourth-line pivot was the only option open to Sturm. He wasn’t going to yank Elias Lindholm, Zacha, or Minten in favor of Poitras. The move came with a potential downside: disrupting the heavy, grinding identity of the Jeannot-Kuraly-Kastelic trio.
The durable Kuraly, 33, has played 647 NHL and this is his seventh season with the Bruins, brought back last year after four seasons with his hometown Blue Jackets. He has only this season remaining on a deal that pays him $1.85 million annually.
Clearing cap space
Veteran forward Mikey Eyssimont cleared waivers Monday, 24 hours after the Bruins made him available to the other 31 teams. Like Henri Jokiharju last week, he’ll report to Providence, where he’ll still make his guaranteed $1.45 million salary.
Eyssimont’s departure left the Bruins with some $6.6 million in cap space, based on figures listed by puckpedia.com. Prior to Eyssimont’s contract being removed from its calculations, puckpedia reported the Bruins’ cap space at $5.421 million.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.