Two-time Stanley Cup champion Tyler Johnson just might have solidified his case to make the Bruins roster as Boston dressed nearly its entire NHL lineup in the final home preseason game on Tuesday night.
The veteran forward scored a power play goal, and eventual game-winner, in the third period to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden. Johnson has impressed head coach Jim Montgomery more with each practice and game through training camp. Johnson centered Boston's third line with Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau flanked on his wings.
"I think he's gotten better through camp, and I thought tonight he was really good," Montgomery told reporters after Boston's 4-1 win. "I thought he's made real subtle plays in the first two games he played. Tonight was a real good effort. Not because of the goal. I thought his line was our best line tonight. I thought Freddy and Brazeau were excellent."
Johnson moved into the bumper position and Elias Lindholm slid into the right elbow spot on the Bruins' first power play unit after Brad Marchand exited the game with an illness following the first period. Pavel Zacha was able to feed the puck across the front of the net to Johnson for the wide-open backdoor goal.
"It was good movement, good support all the way around," Johnson told reporters. "Pasta (David Pastrnak) made a good play to Zacha, and he just found me. Pretty easy goal, I think anyone could've scored."
The undrafted 34-year-old has one goal and one assist in three games for the Bruins, but he has been on the ice for five of the Boston's 12 goals this preseason, according to 98.5 The Sports Hub's Ty Anderson.
Along with Johnson's outstanding play, the Bruins also got a boost from goaltender Brandon Bussi, who had his best performance in preseason action. Bussi wasn't exactly tested in the contest. He made 13 saves on 14 Flyers shots. His only hiccup was Travis Konecny's rebound goal in the second period to tie the game at one. He made two exceptional saves -- a point-blank chance from Sean Couturier and a breakaway bid from Anthony Richard.
"I felt really good. I think defensively our team played outstanding," Bussi said. "Made my night pretty easy for me."
In Bussi's last outing, he gave up four goals on 32 shots in Boston's 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Sept. 26. The win over the Flyers was his first of the preseason.
"I think every day I've been building. I've been getting a little bit better," he said. "It just feels so good to get rewarded with a win tonight. ... The more game action you see, the better you are going into a season. Getting put in those experiences is really good for me and our club. It just felt really good to come out with a win."
Here are more notes from Tuesday's Bruins-Flyers preseason game:
-- Elias Lindholm made his preseason debut centering the Bruins' top line with Pastrnak and Zacha. He was held pointless in the game and registered two shots on goal.
"Obviously, there's a lot of rust there, but it's always good to get the first one out of the way. Hopefully, only get better from here," Lindholm told reporters. "It was one of those games where some shifts were really good and some shifts were not very good, so it's just get to know each other more and more and play more games, but there's definitely something there."
-- Montgomery thought the Bruins checking was a key component to Boston controlling the pace of the game.
"The best part was how committed we were to checking," Montgomery said. "I thought our checking led to a lot of O-zone time, which led to wearing them down and creating scoring chances."
-- Despite the win, Montgomery said the Bruins still have aspects of their game they need to learn from going into the final two preseason games and beyond.
"We're hoping to continue to build our game so it just becomes automatic," Montgomery said. "There are still parts of our game that we're a little slow. We want everything to be fast so that things are running on all cylinders. We have guys fighting for spots, so we'll see how that plays out."
-- Montgomery said Marchand was feeling under the weather on Monday which is why the Bruins captain missed practice on Monday.
"He wasn't feeling good two days ago, and when he showed up this morning, he felt good," Montgomery said. "Maybe it came back; 24-hour bug, now a 12-hour bug. He'll be fine."
-- The Bruins travel north of the border to take on the Los Angeles Kings at Videotron Centre in Quebec City on Thursday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN.
