Harrison, Toporowski shine in Prospects Challenge

Entering the 2023 Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend, Boston Bruins fans were excited to see a few key players. Among the ones fans were excited the most about were Fabian Lysell, John Beecher, Mason Lohrei, and John Farinacci.

Surprisingly enough to fans, none of those four factored into any of the games. At least in the sense that none of them scored a goal. The ones that really shined were Brett Harrison and Luke Toporowski.

Over the course of the weekend, there were three games to be played: the first on Friday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the second on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens, and the third just finishing up on Monday.

In the first game, the Bruins took down the Penguins by a score of 4-2. Boston didn’t have a leading scorer in the game, as they had two players who combined for the two goals between them.

Two of them came off the stick of Harrison, the first coming off a rebound from a shot by Matthew Poitras. Harrison wound up finishing the weekend with three goals throughout the round-robin tournament with the third coming on Monday vs, the Devils.

The three goals are a welcome sight for fans, especially since Harrison only played one professional game last season for AHL Providence. Harrison fixes to crack the starting lineup after averaging over 60 points his last two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League.

The other two goals in the game were off the stick of Toporowski, something that should come as no surprise to Boston fans, as they saw Toporowski torch AHL opponents to the tune of 15 goals, and 14 assists in 2022-23.

What they should like is the chemistry between Toporowski, Lysell, and Georgii Merkulov though.

While the other two games were plagued by turnovers (in the 4-2 loss on Monday to the Devils) or ineffectiveness offensively (when they fell 4-1 to Montreal on Saturday), the Bruins have shown that they have some promise with their prospects, especially Trevor Kuntar.

The Buffalo-native, scored Boston’s lone goal on Saturday against the Canadiens all while making some nifty moves to get there.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1703141927892156608

.The goal was Kuntar’s first with the Bruins being signed out of Boston College earlier in the year.

What’s next for the Bruins?

Now that Boston has concluded this portion of rookie camp, the question to ask is what’s next.

Funny, bringing that up today is a perfect day to ask that because in a week, the preseason begins with the Bruins playing their first game in front of a larger crowd when they take on the New York Rangers at the TD Garden.

The latest coming from head coach Tim Montgomery is that Boston will name a captain this year, who it will be is not yet known publicly.

Perhaps it will be revealed at the first game?

For now, we wait a week until the puck drops for the first time in the first NHL Centennial Season in the United States.