Bruins fans shouldn’t read too much into Day 1 training camp lines

Boston Bruins fans took one look at the lines for Day 1 of training camp and immediately buried their heads in their hands, wondering why the coaching staff was so intrigued by a first line of David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, and Elias Lindholm. In a year when the front office acquired some more talent to potentially play with Pastrnak, everyone was perplexed as to why they were trying this line again.

The trio played 348 minutes together at 5-on-5 last season, were outscored 19-16, which is a disaster for any line that has Pastrnak on it, and had a brutal 46.4% Corsi. One thing was clear: this line couldn't keep rolling out at 5-on-5 if the team was going to be successful.

Lo and behold, they were back together again for the very first line rush of this season's training camp. It could be the type of thing that leaves fans bewildered and quickly sour about the upcoming season, but they really shouldn't look too far into the groups on the very first day of camp.

Bruins fans shouldn’t read too much into Day 1 training camp lines

The lines on Day 1 look very reminiscent of the types of groupings we saw last season. While this year's camp is a bit shorter, there is still plenty of time to find chemistry with new lines. To me, this looks like the type of scenario where Marco Sturm is just trying to keep everyone comfortable on the first day with players they have some familiarity with.

The Pastrnak line skated together; Casey Mittelstadt and Pavel Zacha reunited with Peterka on their wing instead of Viktor Arvidsson; and the Kid Line of James Hagens, Fraser Minten, and Marat Khusnutdinov was also a trio after debuting last season.

Sturm will attempt to mix and match a bit more to get the most out of this lineup, and if nothing else, this could just be a look at what the top-six will look like, barring any other lineup changes. These nine will likely all be members of the top three lines once camp begins, but not necessarily in this order. We'll likely see new combinations already on Friday.

One thing that did catch my eye was the group of players competing for the fourth-line and extra forward spot. Alex Steeves, Sean Kuraly, and Mark Kastelic were on one line, which was a bit different than the fourth line from last season but included all players who could make the team. The other "fourth line" trio came in Group B, with Tanner Jeannot, Dans Locmelis, and Michael Eyssimont skating together.

There were some questions about Matthew Poitras' spot in the organization, and this might confirm that he isn't really in the team's plans. Poitras skated with Attilio Biasca and Lukas Reichel, which looks more to me like an AHL top-six line. It was Locmelis who received the chance to play with the NHLers and fill out what looks like a group of 15 forwards who are being given a real shot at taking the forward spots on the opening night roster.

I'd keep an eye on whether Poitras gets a chance to skate with that group at any point going forward or if he continues playing on a line with the expected AHLers.

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