With the youth movement in Boston, the Providence Bruins had the potential to be a dangerous team in the AHL this season. Michael Eyssimont, Henri Jokiharju, Lukas Reichel, and Jordan Harris spent significant time in the NHL last season and started the year in the AHL. Still, fans are quickly learning that NHL experience doesn't automatically translate to AHL success.
The most disappointing part of the Bruins' 3-6-0 start is that their goaltending has been a strength, with Jiri Patera (.915 save percentage and 2.43 goals-against average) and Simon Zajicek (.907 save % and 2.30 GAA) forming one of the league's better tandems. They deserve better from their offense, but they aren't getting it.
We gave them some leeway after Providence scored just one goal in its first two games and was shut out in two of its first five. After all, Trent Whitfield was in his first tour of duty as a head coach, and coaching in the AHL isn't easy with the roster uncertainty. We could even give them a pass for failing to score on their first 22 powerplay opportunities. However, there comes a time when enough is enough.
The problem is that the NHL's success likely comes at the AHL team's expense, and if fans have to choose, they'd much rather see Boston succeed. The Bruins are leaning more on youth this season, which has reduced some of the AHL's potential offense, and it doesn't help that the team's four leading scorers from last season, Georgii Merkulov, Riley Tufte, Matej Blumel, and Patrick Brown, have all left the organization.
Providence Bruins' mixed results
From an NHL perspective, the true mark of a good AHL team is whether it develops players who can one day play at the highest level. To be fair, Providence didn't develop well under Mougenel, despite plenty of regular season team success. It's unfortunate to see the AHL team struggle, but it's not as if all the regular season wins over the past few years helped either.
It would be nice to see Dans Locmelis become a stronger offensive contributor. There were high hopes for the Latvian coming out of training camp, but he still hasn't scored in nine games and has only five assists. It isn't the worst output for a sophomore, but seeing a couple of goals would help the youngster get his footing and potentially join the youth movement in Boston before the end of the season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google