Young goaltender, Kyle Keyser may not have seen a full sixty minutes against the New Jersey Devils, but he put on a strong showing for the Boston Bruins regardless.
Playing against a strong New Jersey Devils line-up, Kyle Keyser started in net for the Boston Bruins and kept everything out, finishing the game having stopped all 17 shots that were put on him in the first thirty minutes of play.
Given this was pre-season it’s perhaps nothing to write home about, but Dan Vladar who came in for the second half of the game dropped four shots, including the over-time winner; safe to say, Keyser’s performance looks really impressive when compared to the AHL regular.
It’s often been pondered as to who replaces Tuukka Rask down the line, but given that it wasn’t a second-string line-up that faced Kyle Keyser and a second-string Boston Bruins outfit, it’s safe to say that an early judgement could be made that Keyser may well be the man with a few more years’ seasoning as a pro.
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Perhaps the most impressive stop from Kyle Keyser was on a shorthanded breakaway, knocking Miles Wood‘s shot aside and into the corner, not offering any sort of rebound up and allowing the Boston Bruins that little extra time to re-group.
You’d have to imagine that Kyle Keyser has earned at least another game or two this pre-season, giving the Boston Bruins a chance to see if he’s good to challenge new signing Maxime Lagace and Dan Vladar for the starting role in the American Hockey League this year.
He might well even manage to stake his claim as the first call-up if the Boston Bruins suffer any goaltender injuries this coming season.
It’s just reward for a guy that spent four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and showed a steady gradual improvement over that time, finishing his final season with the Oshawa Generals with a 2.75 goals-against-average and 0.915 save percentage across 47 games.
While we shouldn’t get excited by one performance in one pre-season game, it’s nice to know that there may be a future Boston Bruins starting goaltender in Providence this season. Dan Vladar has always looked like an NHL backup at best.
The future looks a little brighter than it did this morning; even more so because our second-string Boston Bruins line-up pushed the New Jersey Devils, complete with P.K. Subban, Jack Hughes and Cory Schnieder among others, to over-time.
Bring on the next game!