3. Matt Grzelcyk is ready for more responsibility with the Boston Bruins, Jeremy Lauzon is not.
This game started with Jeremy Lauzon on the first defensive pairing with McAvoy. However, he finished the game with just 12 minutes of ice time with McAvoy.
The hope from head coach Bruce Cassidy was that Lauzon could replace Zdeno Chara. But that just isn’t the case just yet. Lauzon just isn’t ready to handle the big minutes that Chara played.
However, Lauzon could possibly be this player eventually. He may have to be slowly transitioned into this role this season instead of thrown right into it. But with a stacked division, this will be difficult to do this year as it’ll be hard to find favorable matchups to do this.
Unlike Lauzon, Matt Grzelcyk thrived with his expanded role. He finished second among B’s defensemen in time on ice with 24:07 and first in powerplay time with 5:51 across five powerplays.
Grizz finished the game with six shots on goal, two penalty minutes, and one assist. Grzelcyk showed that he can handle quarterbacking a powerplay and playing top minutes against a bottom-tier team, however, it’s still unknown if this is the case against one of the better teams.