The Gangs All on Board For Final Pre Season Game Against Caps

Roster for Tonight's Game : Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak Hall-Coyle-Smith DeBrusk-Haula-Foligno Frederic-Nosek-Lazar Forbort-McAvoy Reilly-Carlo Grzelcyk-Clifton Ullmark Grosenick

The Bruins will be icing pretty much their A team tonight. the biggest news is the first game in for Charlie Coyle. Much has been written about the departure of Krecji and the question of who will be the guy to slot in. Right now it's Coyle's spot to keep or lose. 

The bottom line, the last seasons Coyle has struggled with consistency and at times looked like a shadow of the player that helped get the Bruins to the final in 2019. Last season was very weak and he went almost 20 games with a goal. In 51 games he totaled just 16 points and was a -4. After the season ended with the Bruins losing to the Islanders in the playoffs, it was revealed Coyle needed knee surgery to address a nagging issue he was playing through for the last 2 seasons. Often watching him play, I wondered what was up with his skating because he looked slower and was not cutting to the net as often as he used to. Much depends on what the Bruins do with depth scoring and Coyle returning to form and showing he has it in him to be the guy to center Hall and Smith will go a long way to determine if Sweeny can stand pat or have to make a trade. 

Be interesting to see how Ulmark plays as well. He hasn't been that stellar in his previous outings. He has been fighting the puck at times and didn't look comfortable. He can say all the right things about not feeling the pressure of expectation now being with a good club or replacing Tuukka, one of the best goalies in the league over the last 10 years, but he is only human. I'll be watching him closely. The Bruins need to have him be solid.

So let's go and get the real season going after this last pre-season jaunt.