Boston Bruins: Tyler Randell Has Been Excellent
Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
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The Boston Bruins have seemingly found a diamond in the rough with fourth liner Tyler Randell who earned a spot on the roster out of training camp. The expected fourth line right wing candidates for Boston during camp were Maxime Talbot, Brian Ferlin, and Seth Griffith. After being placed on waivers, Talbot went unclaimed and has remained with the Bruins up to this point on their main roster, Brian Ferlin was sent down to Providence as one of the last cuts from camp, and Griffith was hurt early in the preseason. The remaining fourth line options were all in the discussion for the center and left wing spots, and included Jonas Kemppainen, Chris Kelly, and Zac Rinaldo. Tyler Randell showed enough grit and determination to earn a spot on the Bruins’ roster to start the season as a dark horse candidate, and it’s paid off in spades so far.
Tyler Randell has gelled on the Bruins fourth line with Zac Rinaldo and Jonas Kemppainen and has been a much better option than Boston has had in years on that line. The combination of speed, grit, and the ability to generate energy and offense has sparked the Bruins to their first two wins on the season. Randell’s first goal came on his first shot in his first NHL game just three minutes and 46 seconds into the second period of the Bruins 6-2 road win over the Colorado Avalanche. Adam McQuaid shot the puck on net and Randell was able to redirect the puck past Varlamov to put the Bruins up 3-0 at the time. Randell showed off his great hockey sense by finding an opening in front of Varlamov to create the screen and simply tipped the puck past the Avalanche’s netminder to score his first goal.
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Randell’s second goal game on his second NHL shot in his second NHL came against the Arizona Coyotes, opening the scoring for the Bruins and tying the game at the eight minute and forty-two second mark of the second period. Torey Krug stole the puck in the neutral zone and fed the puck to David Krejci who found Randell skating towards the net. Randell showed off his stick skills by dropping the puck to his backhand before driving it past Smith for just the second goal of his young career.
The Bruins are clearly going to be riding Randell and the hot bottom-six of Kelly, Spooner, and Hayes, as well as Rinaldo, Kemppainen, and Randell, keeping Brett Connolly as a healthy scratch. It says a lot about how well those lines have clicked when a player with the potential of Connolly can’t find his way back into the lineup right now, but it’s certainly a good problem for the Bruins to have. Claude Julien probably won’t hesitate to pull one of the fourth liners out of the lineup and slot Connolly back in somewhere on the third line if things start to go south again, which should be good for the internal competition of the Bruins players. Complacency is not something Claude Julien is willing to deal with, and the Bruins can’t afford any weak links this season.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen on Twitter @BShareCohen to discuss all things Bruins and sports