During a disappointing 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, multiple lineup problems were revealed. While the Boston Bruins’ fourth line of Jeannot-Kuraly-Kastelic showed great effort and performed well, the rest of the forward lines fell flat and were not able to generate any scoring. The Bruins defense did not collectively have the worst game, but one pair stood out as especially sloppy and detrimental when they were on the ice: the Lindholm-Lohrei pairing.
Mason Lohrei has not been handling the pressure of the playoffs well over three games. Bad habits are creeping back into his game after temporarily retreating since the formation of the Hampus Lindholm pairing. Is it time to bench Lohrei for a game or two and bring in another defenseman who showed promise in the final stretch of the season? Or should the Bruins stick with the young d-man through this rough patch and hope this helps him gain meaningful experience?
Lohrei out, Jokiharju in?
Lohrei has broken away from the good defensive practice he shaped over the season, and he is back to his loose, irresponsible play from earlier in the year. Through the first three games of this series, Lohrei has a +/- rating of -4 with 0 points and 0 shots on goal. He has looked truly awful out on the ice, passing the puck directly to Sabres players, not connecting on passes with his own team, being out of position, not being able to clear the puck from his own zone, and skating slowly with no confidence, among all of the concerning flaws in his game. Everything he is doing is not conducive to playoff hockey, particularly for a wildcard team that mainly relies on its goaltender to win them games.
Ideally, a team would like to keep its lineup together for an entire playoff run and call for help from the healthy scratches in case of emergency, but right now, alarm bells are going off. A lineup change might be reactionary at this point in the series, but it also seems necessary for the situation the Bruins are in. Lohrei has been playing on the right side, his offside, since returning from the Olympic break, and the change could be wearing on him. Subbing in a true right-shot defenseman could be a fix.
Over his last five games played, Henri Jokiharju has scored 5 points, including 2 goals, and has recorded 8 shots on goal. He has played a much more stable, mature game in his own end and has been able to carry the puck up the ice with a shoot-first mentality on a team full of pass-first players. Heading into the series, there was a question whether Jokiharju or Andrew Peeke would make the playoff lineup, with Peeke edging out Joki to some surprise, but as the series has progressed, Peeke has settled in and proved he should be in the lineup.
Now with Lohrei bottoming out, maybe it is time to give Jokiharju a shot. It is unlikely to happen, as Marco Sturm has been consistent in sticking with the current defensive lineup, but it will be interesting to see how he handles the growing Lohrei problem.
Add us as a preferred source on Google