BOSTON — With an upper body injury forcing Zdeno Chara from Thursday’s game less than five minutes after puck drop, the Bruins’ five remaining defensemen — two of whom have yet to appear in a regular-season NHL game — were forced to work overtime.
Joe Morrow, Colin Miller and Matt Irwin all logged upward of 26 minutes of ice time, and Morrow, Miller and Brandon Carlo each recorded a point in an eventual 4-3 shootout win over the New York Rangers.
Head coach Claude Julien was especially complimentary of Morrow, who has made a very strong case for a roster spot so far this preseason.
“If you ask me for a rating, (Morrow) got a real good rating (Thursday),” Julien said. “Especially when you’re down to five D’s, and the amount of ice time those guys had to get. … That includes a young guy in Carlo, trying to get his feet wet in the league, and right from the get-go, you’re down to five. So, I thought those guys handled themselves well, but Joe was really good in my mind.”
With Dennis Seidenberg sidelined for the first two months of the season and Chara potentially unavailable, as well (Julien had no update on the Bruins captain’s status after the game), the team will look to some of its younger, less experienced blueliners to step up. More performances like Thursday’s would go a long way toward easing the organization’s nerves.
Some additional notes from Boston’s third preseason game:
— Tyler Randell scored the Bruins’ first goal of the night off a deflection of a Morrow slap shot. The redirect, he said, was no fluke.
“After practice, Morrow and I work a lot on tips,” said Randell, who’s spent the last three seasons with the Providence Bruins, “so I saw he got the puck, and I just went straight to the slot, and he made a perfect shot.”
Randell was the center of attention again in the second period when, with the Bruins trailing 2-1, he put a beating on Rangers defenseman Brett Bellemore. In explaining after the game what led to the fight, the 24-year-old delivered a textbook hockey-player quote.
“I just finished my check,” Randell said. “(Bellemore) kind of gave me a little bump. And the score, we needed a little boost, so I decided, I just asked him if he fought. He said, ‘Yeah,’ so we just went at it.”
Julien liked what he saw.
“Well, he’s going to give you that any time he gets a chance,” the coach said. “That’s the way Tyler is, and he’s been good about that. He wants to play the game, and when the going gets tough, and he’s being challenged, he’ll take the challenge. He’s a tough, real tough kid, and I’ve seen him in many fights.”
The goal-and-fight combo put Randell one assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick — a fact the winger was well aware of.
“It definitely crossed my mind,” he said. “It crossed my mind. Just trying to get pucks to the net. Our line was playing well, lots of energy, so the chances were there. We’ve just got to keep going.”
Randell added two hits, a takeaway and a blocked shot in a productive 11:42 of ice time.
— Ryan Spooner netted the game-tying goal with 53 seconds remaining in regulation, and linemate Brett Connolly assisted on Carlo’s tally earlier in the third period.
“I thought the first game (Sunday), we had a couple chances, but we didn’t really get as many looks as we wanted to,” Spooner said of the performance of his line, which also included left winger Jimmy Hayes. “And then again (Thursday), I thought we had a couple of looks and we were a little bit better, but we were hemmed in in our end a couple times and all that kind of stuff. I think we can maybe produce a little bit more, and that’s what we’re trying to do right now.”
— Thursday’s game featured a matchup between Hayes and his younger brother, Kevin, a fellow Dorchester native and Boston College product.
Kevin Hayes scored the Rangers’ final goal of the night, while Jimmy Hayes did not record a point but finished with three shots on goal, four hits, two takeaways and a plus-1 rating.
— Four Massachusetts natives were on the ice to begin the game: both Hayes brothers, plus Rangers winger Brian Gibbons (Braintree; BC) and defenseman Keith Yandle (Milton).
Photo via Twitter/@bwrath16
