It would be foolish to try to draw any concrete conclusions from a team’s lines on Day 1 of training camp, especially if that team only runs a few whole-line drills during that practice.
For example, Jesper Froden is not the Bruins’ new No. 1 right wing despite skating with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on Thursday. And no, David Pastrnak being on a line with Jakub Lauko and Cam Hughes isn’t some sort of demotion.
But there was still some insight that could be gleaned from the way the Bruins’ lines and pairings looked during Thursday’s two practice sessions. There was even a good explanation for breaking up the top line and doing some experimenting.
“We were gonna mix a few of those lines up,” Cassidy said. “[Froden] had a good couple games in Buffalo [at the Prospects Challenge]. He’s a little bit ahead of guys because of his age and the level he’s played at, so we had a little bit of a plan to try to see him with some higher-end players.
“I talked to Pasta about that. Obviously that’s his line. And I thought Pasta could help Lauko along as well. He’s getting closer. He’s a guy who probably looks up to David, so not a bad landing spot for him. We might, as we go along, move some different pieces around.”
Froden, whom the Bruins signed out of the Swedish Hockey League this summer, just turned 27. To Cassidy’s point, his age and experience in a professional league put him ahead of the team’s younger prospects.
So it’s not surprising that the Bruins want to see how Froden looks with and against bona fide NHLers instead of prospects. And splitting up the top line instead of another line makes sense, because that line has been together for years and doesn’t need a bunch of training camp reps to find chemistry.
Froden is a long shot to make the Bruins’ opening night roster, but the Bruins clearly want to figure out what they have in him and how close he might be to contributing.
Another player who got an opportunity high in the lineup on Thursday was Jack Studnicka. With presumptive No. 2 center Charlie Coyle limited as he works his way back from an offseason knee procedure, it was the 22-year-old Studnicka who got the first look between Taylor Hall and Craig Smith.
Studnicka, who put on 15 pounds this summer, is trying to make a real push to stick on the NHL roster. While making the jump all the way to No. 2 center might be a bit too ambitious, he’s going to get a shot to prove otherwise until Coyle returns (which could be sometime next week).
The third line was Erik Haula between Jake DeBrusk and Nick Foligno. The fourth rotated a little bit, but was mostly Trent Frederic-Tomas Nosek-Curtis Lazar. Those are both exactly what was anticipated. Given all the new faces in that group, Cassidy may keep those two lines together as much as possible going forward to try to build chemistry.
On defense, it was free-agent signing Derek Forbort paired with Charlie McAvoy, Mike Reilly with Brandon Carlo, and Matt Grzelcyk with Connor Clifton.
Cassidy has said there could be some shuffling among those six -- specifically who’s next to McAvoy -- but has made it clear he wants to see what a Forbort-McAvoy pairing looks like. Given that the Bruins already have a good idea of what Grzelcyk and McAvoy can do together, it shouldn’t be surprising at all if Forbort gets more run in that spot during preseason since he’s the new guy.
A Grzelcyk-Clifton pairing could be somewhat concerning once games actually start since both are undersized (Grzelcyk is 5-foot-9, Clifton 5-foot-11), but for now there’s no harm in seeing what they look like together. If their mobility spares them from having to engage in long battles down low in their own zone, then size won’t really matter.
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