One player who was a surprise to make the roster out of training camp was young defenseman Frederic Brunet. Second-year head coach Marco Sturm had him in the lineup when star defenseman Charlie McAvoy was suspended for the first six games of the season.
When McAvoy came back, Brunet had made it very difficult to take him out of the lineup, and Sturm found a solid third pairing with Mason Lohrei. However, as does happen sometimes with some younger players, they hit a wall and need a night off. That is going to happen with Brunet on Thursday night when the Black and Gold close out a short two-game road trip against former coach Jim Montgomery and the St. Louis Blues.
Marco Sturm is scratching defenseman Frederic Brunet against the Blues
Tuesday night was a rough game for the young Brunet against the Carolina Hurricanes in a 2-1 Boston loss. The Bruins opened the scoring early in the game on a Pavel Zacha power-play goal and nearly carried the lead into the first intermission, but a costly turnover by Brunet led to the game-tying goal.
Brunet had control of the puck below the goal line behind the Black and Gold net when he was stripped of the puck by Jackson Blake, who swooped to the front of the net and beat Jeremy Swayman to tie the game. That wasn't the only mistake made by Brunet that night. And he wasn't alone.
Boston got a first-hand, up-close look at just how good Carolina is and how difficult it is to play against them. Their forecheck was relentless and pinned the Bruins in their defensive end. On top of that, their speed was tough for the Black and Gold to contain at times, which was evident on teh game-winning goal in the third period by Sebastian Aho in the 2-1 Hurricanes win.
Sometimes a coach doesn't like to hurt a young player's confidence by scratching him, but truth be told, this is something that needs to be done. Brunet needs a game to watch from the press box, and a reset is just what he needs. Getting him back into the lineup on Saturday afternoon against the Chicago Blackhawks is a no-brainer.
Connor Clifton, who returned in free agency this season after stints with the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, will slot in with Lohrei on the third pairing, according to Jim McBride of the Boston Globe during Thursday morning's skate.
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