BOSTON — Boston Bruins center Ryan Spooner didn’t have a great training camp, but his quality performances in the final two preseason games earned him another chance to impress Claude Julien and the rest of the coaching staff.
He’s in the lineup for Wednesday night’s season opener against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden.
“This is not negative, but he hasn’t made the team,” Julien said after Wednesday morning skate. “He’s here and he has to hang on to his spot and we’re giving him that opportunity.
“We’ve said that before, anybody that feels comfortable here certainly doesn’t have the right approach to our team, it’s about earning it. The thing I liked about what he did was that he had an average camp, he was sent down, he came back and he showed us that he wanted a second chance and proved that he deserved a second chance so he’s got it now.”
Spooner skated with Milan Lucic and Matt Fraser at morning skate, and we could see that same trio Wednesday night.
As for the Flyers, they don’t have as many enforcers/heavyweights in their lineup this season, but their roster certainly doesn’t lack truculence.
“They’re still a big team. They still have some toughness,” Julien said. “It doesn’t mean about dropping gloves all the time but they’re a big team and they’re gonna continue to play the same way. I’ve watched some of their preseason games and they’re a good team. Gotta give them credit on how they bounced back last year from a tough start so there’s character there as well.”
Flyers top-six winger Wayne Simmonds is back in the lineup, per the team. He recently suffered a lower-body injury.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams.
BRUINS
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Reilly Smith
Milan Lucic–Ryan Spooner–Matt Fraser
Chris Kelly–Carl Soderberg–Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille–Craig Cunningham–Bobby Robins
Zdeno Chara–Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg–Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug–Kevan Miller
Extra: Matt Bartkowski
Tuukka Rask, Niklas Svedberg
FLYERS
Brayden Schenn–Claude Giroux–Jakub Voracek
Michael Raffl–Vincent Lecavalier–R.J. Umberger
Matt Read–Sean Couturier–Wayne Simmonds
Zac Rinaldo–Pierre-Édouard Bellemare–Jason Akeson
Andrew MacDonald–Braydon Coburn
Nicklas Grossmann–Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto–Luke Schenn
Steve Mason
