Preseason recap: Bruins shut out Rangers, 3-0, as Bussi stands tall

The goaltender more than showed up to play tonight!

The Boston Bruins blanked the New York Rangers, 3-0, to open up the preseason at the TD Garden tonight with goaltender Brandon Bussi making highlight-reel saves.

While veterans like Jake DeBrusk and James van Riemsdyk showed chemistry on a line and on the first power play unit tonight, the game was really about seeing what the future of the Bruins organization could do.

Head Coach Jim Montgomery said “it was a really good start for several players,” but recognized there’s still a lot of training camp left to go.

Bussi and Matthew Poitras were standouts, thriving in front of the Bruins crowd and improving their play as the game developed.

Here are the highlights!

First period:

The Bruins opened the scoring at 7:20 of the first period on the power play.

After some strong cycling lead by DeBrusk, Reilly Walsh fed Poitras a pass where inside the left-wing circle, he beat Jonathan Quick’s glove. 1-0 Bruins.

Second period:

The Bruins took a two-goal lead at 3:04 of the second period.

Poitras found DeBrusk inside the right-wing circle where he thew a wrist shot past Quick’s glove. 2-0 Bruins.

The Bruins extended their lead at 8:07 of the second period.

In the neutral zone, Jakub Zboril sent John Beecher exploding into the offensive zone where he skated down the center lane to beat Quick low stick side. 3-0 Bruins.

Third period:

Scoreless, but the best save of the period — and game — and likely preseason all together:

Final score: 3-0 Bruins

Game notes:

• It’s hard to say what the Bruins’ roster will look like at the end of training camp, but Poitras did enough tonight to keep a watchful eye on his progress the next few games. As Montgomery pointed out postgame, the competition level wasn’t against NHLers. Regardless, Poitras dressed to compete and didn’t shy away from the puck in his first game. He seemed to always be around the puck and kept his game simple with DeBrusk and van Riemsdyk as linemates. He ended the night one goal and one assist.
• Bussi was hands down the best player on the ice. He had himself a game, making 29 saves. He was seeing things through traffic, cutting down angles, huge on the penalty kill and tracking the puck really well. There were no complaints when it came to his game tonight. Bussi was exciting to watch and had the Garden crowd on their feet when he made a crazy glove stop in the third period.
• The Bruins’ had two power plays and the first unit looked good helmed by DeBrusk and van Riemsdyk. The two did a lot of the heavy lifting, creating plays and cycling the puck, and that led to a nice dish to Poitras open in the face-off circle.
• Zboril and Patrick Brown did not finish the game, as they both left with injuries. Montgomery said they were taking “precautionary” measures.
• The Bruins will face the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.