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On the heels of their Monday night 3-2 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and with a Tuesday day of rest to their name in what’s been a teaching heavy camp, the Boston Bruins return to the TD Garden tonight for a 7 p.m. tilt with the Atlantic Division rival Detroit Red Wings.
For many of Boston’s NHL regulars like
Matt Beleskey,
Adam McQuaid, and
Ryan Spooner, it will be the first look at how they’ve adjusted to some of the changes the Black and Gold have made to their system in an effort to end a two-year playoff drought. The Bruins want to play with a controlled sort of speed, which doesn’t necessarily equate to foot-speed, but rather quicker decisions with the puck, especially through the neutral zone and towards the attacking zone. Another tweak the Bruins have attempted to make to their on-ice game is having their defenders challenge the other team at the blue line versus simply falling back into a d-zone retreat.
But no matter the system, the Bruins know what they will get from guys like Beleskey and Spooner. Same for McQuaid, a fixture on the Boston backend since 2010. The same cannot be said for Charlestown, Mass., native
Matt Grzelcyk, a third-round draft choice (85th overall) in 2012, who will make his long awaited Bruins pro debut after four years with Boston University.
No stranger to Garden ice from his tenure with the Terriers, whether it be a Hockey East Tournament or Beanpot Tournament, the 22-year-old admits that some nerves will still flow come game time.
“Maybe it just makes you feel a little more comfortable than normal, but I’m sure I’ll still have jitters and butterflies going before the game,” Grzelcyk said of his familiarity with the Garden after the morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena. Grzelcyk noted the ticket requests made his way by friends and family, but wanted to remained focused on the task at hand: making a good first NHL impression.
“You just have to think the game a little faster,” Grzelcyk said of a jump the pro game. “But I think that’s one of the strengths of my game, so I’m going to try and use that to my advantage.”
Tonight also marks the preseason debut of 2015 first-round pick,
Zach Senyshyn.
Held out the club’s annual development camp with mono, and then ruled out for rookie camp earlier this month due to an emergency appendectomy, the 19-year-old is excited to show his improvements from this time a year ago to a Boston brass that’s eager for a young talent to crack their roster.
“I feel really confident and back to 100%,” Senyshyn admitted. “I just wanna show that I got a lot stronger over the course of the [OHL] season and really worked on my defensive play. I rounded out my game. I was very one-dimensional last year, and I made strides to improve that part of my game.”
With 45 goals and 65 points in 66 games for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds a year ago, a return back to juniors would likely come with similar dominance for the 6-foot-2 winger. And without American Hockey League eligibility to his name just yet, Senyshyn is aware that it’s either Boston -- even if it’s just a nine-game trial with the big club -- or back to juniors.
“It’s a big opportunity and one I don’t want to waste,” said Senyshyn.
But Senyshyn isn’t alone in regards to the opportunity in front of him.
Peter Mueller, in camp on a professional tryout after three years in Europe (two in the Swiss league and last year in Sweden), will skate in his second consecutive preseason contest for the club, something he admittedly welcomes in his effort to return to the North American ranks.
“I thought it was a solid game for myself,” Mueller said of his Bruins debut on Monday. “Hopefully tonight I can show a little more skill, more pucks to the net, and create some more offense.”
The 28-year-old skated in 13:49 in the shootout loss, and though he finished the night without a shot on goal, was part of a line with Peter Cehlarik and Sean Kuraly that utterly dominated the puck at five-on-five, and finished the night with an all-situation 79% Corsi-For percentage.
“At this game, it’s easy to throw the puck away and then it becomes a chase,” Mueller, who spent last year with the Malmo Redhawks, said. “The more you can hold onto the puck, fend off the one-on-one battles, the more you’ll create chances. I thought our line created a lot of chances, we held onto the puck, and mostly played in their zone, but it was unfortunate we didn’t get many grade-A looks.”
On a line with Beleskey and Spooner tonight -- a spot that could very well be his to claim if he does make the big league team out of camp -- Mueller hopes for more chances on net.
“The more you feel the puck, the more touches you get, the more shots you get, and the more confident you get,” Mueller noted. And with Spooner the likely dish-man and Beleskey as the net-front presence, the shots should be there for the Bloomington, Minn., native.
In net, the Bruins will give this one to
Malcolm Subban and
Daniel Vladar.
This will be Subban’s first game action since a fractured larynx suffered in a pregame warmup put an end to his 2015-16 campaign on Feb. 6. The 22-year-old Subban, who stopped three of six shots in his lone NHL game back in Feb. 2015 against the juggernaut St. Louis Blues, finished last season with 14 wins and a .911 save percentage in 27 games played for the Providence Bruins. And if the Bruins continue their Monday night trend and give the backup netminder the third period, then fans should get a look at the 6-foot-5 Vladar, drafted 75th overall by the club back in 2015. Vladar finished the 2015-16 year with 12 wins and a .920 in 30 games for the Chicago Steel (USHL).
Detroit will counter with
Jared Coreau. The 6-foot-6 netminder from Perth, Ont. appeared in 47 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2015-16, and posted 29 wins and a .922 save percentage.
The Bruins are 0-0-1 on the preseason thus far.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can also be read in the New England Hockey Journal magazine. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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