Preseason Recap: Bruins come out completely lifeless in Quebec, lose 4-1

We should be thankful the games don’t count, because if this one did we’d be calling for people to lose their jobs.

Siri, what’s french for “f!#king gross”

1st Period

There was a fight!

That was about it. The B’s took two shots on goal and called it a period while the Kings took a bunch of exploratory shots that the B’s mostly intercepted or they didn’t really turn into quality scoring chances. There were a couple of half-decent ones, but Korpisalo stopped them.

Onto the 2nd, where all the bad things started.

2nd Period, where all the bad things started

The Kings opened the scoring on a 2-on-1 after a blocked shot bounced out to Kevin Fiala, who mailed a perfect pass to Quentin Byfield to put the Kings up 1-0.

Have you ever seen a sequence that starts so bad you just mentally project the score to already be 1-0? That’s what I did the minute they entered the zone.

Anyway, Quentin Byfield scored again on the doorstep from a Joel Edmundson shot that went mostly undefended from either Lohrei or Wotherspoon. 2-0 Kings.

Wonderful job, fellas.

Mercifully, Patrick Brown remembered that the Bruins were playing against David Rittich, and so decided to take a shot from way far out in order to get the B’s on the board! 2-1 Kings.

No further scoring, we continue on.

3rd Period

Let’s just cut to the chase: They gave up a short-handed goal on their first power play of the night…

…and then Quentin Byfield finished his night with a hat trick.

Bruins lose 4-1 on an absolutely pathetic effort.

Game Notes

• Your TOI leader for the night was not catalogued as this game was away from an official NHL rink…for now.
• The Boston Bruins decided to honor Quebec City hockey last night by cosplaying as the late 80’s Nordiques. They couldn’t get a single thing done on offense whatsoever; wasting prime opportunities and prime scoring chances at will. You know you’re having a bad night when it’s five minutes to go in regulation and you only have 10 shots. It’s an even worse night when three players lead your team in shooting chances for the night with two. Most egregious was Riley Tufte failing to overcome a Kings’ defender on a 3-on-1, but outside of Patrick Brown swooping in to keep the team from getting shut out by David Rittich of all people; just about the entire team wears this as a worst-case scenario of what they’re capable of. Even if it’s just preseason and they’ll probably do their best to prove themselves worthy on Saturday night with a more complete roster….this was rough.
• Thanks to The Swayman Thing ongoing, Joonas Korpisalo’s performances are now going to be under a microscope; which is kind of unfair to the poor guy. Especially since the night he had was one effectively if he had played without a forward corps in front of him. His .846 SV% definitely reflects the night he had, but if you take away the Byfield goals; most of which felt so giftwrapped they could’ve come with a fancy bow; he was…fine. Nobody did any favors for him, and he wasn’t a world beater…but he was fine. You would’ve needed a .980 SV% to even have a prayer of surviving an asskicking like this, and I’m not even sure prime Hasek could give you that without any shooting support.
• I can’t confirm any of it with anything from NaturalStatTrick, but Mason Lohrei and Parker Wotherspoon might’ve had one of their worst games in a Boston uniform; completely irresponsible play with the puck, frequently being an unofficial secondary assist to the Kings, or useless on rush defense. Not what you want to see if you want either of them to be on the opening night roster. I think both have plenty of promise but man, they cannot share the ice for too long or bad things start to happen.
• I’d point out that the rookies and tweeners had a bad night but that would imply anyone in a Boston uniform had a good one. So I’ll just say “let’s just give Lysell like three games on the main roster” and call it a day. The alternatives make me personally queasy.
• To the Pacific Division, who has to play Quentin Byfield three to four times this year? All I can say is good luck, man. That kid is a dynamite skater.
• YOU DID THIS IN FRONT OF BERGERON!? BERGERON!?
• If there’s any game we should be happy didn’t count, it was this one.
• And you know what? I’ll give it to the good people of Quebec City; they watched a very sloppy, low-effort game for about 25 minutes before the dam broke, and you know what? They kept up the energy. Take a bow, QC; take a bow.

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Let’s all forget this game ever happened and return to the US with the final preseason game of the 2024-25 season; a tilt against the Capitals in Washington DC. That game will be on NESN and NHLN at 5pm EST.

We’ll see you there!