It was a solid weekend for the Providence Bruins. They won one and lost one, both at home. They beat the Springfield Thunderbirds for the second straight time, after an opening night victory on Oct. 7. Then they  lost by a goal to a talented Toronto Marlies team. Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

***If the line of Kenny Agostino, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Peter Cehlarik isn’t the best line in the AHL right now, I’d like to know who has a better one. Agostino, the reigning AHL MVP and scoring champ, had a total of 2-3-5 for the weekend and was named AHL Player of the Week.  Cehlarik had 1-2-3 and JFK had 1-1-2. They are a possession nightmare for opponents. They’ve had 40- to 50-second stretches in the offensive zone where the opposing team hasn’t touched the puck. Enjoy it while you can. Any one of the three – or all of them – could be gone before long.

*** Special teams have been good to this point. The P-Bruins are seventh on the PK at 90% (18 for 20) and eighth on the PP at 27.3% (3 for 11). Providence has scored a PP goal in all three games.

*** Among defensemen in the AHL, Tommy Cross is tied for second in goals with two.

BAD

***Providence has taken 20 penalties through three games, including five for hooking, four for slashing, three for tripping and two for holding. That’s too many. Their opponents have been penalized only 11 times.

***Don’t know what referee Peter MacDougall thought he saw before whistling Justin Hickman for tripping on Saturday night. Hickman gave a Springfield player a push in the area of the hips. The player fell down. That’s not a trip.

***Providence ran into a red-hot goalie in Toronto’s Calvin Pickard (33 saves) on Saturday. The stop he made on Adam Payerl late in the second period is the early leader for save of the season at The Dunk.

*** JFK was slow in controlling the puck inside the offensive blueline against Springfield on Friday and it led to a shorthanded goal by Chase Balisy of the Thunderbirds.

UGLY

The injured: Jordan Szwarz (lower body).

 

PROVIDENCE — Calvin Pickard (33 saves) was the difference as the Toronto Marlies sent the Providence Bruins to their first loss of the season, 3-2, on Saturday night.

Despite the loss, P-Bruins coach Jay Leach was satisfied with the way his team took it to an excellent Marlies team.

“As the game went on – maybe from the 15-minute mark of the second period – I thought we really started to come and find our game, started to simplify and get pucks where we wanted to,” he said.

Here are three quick hits:

AGOSTINO-JFK-CEHLARIK

Toronto had better luck defending against the big line than Springfield did, but the trio was involved in both Providence goals and was a going concern all night.

I asked Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe for his impressions.

“There’s a lot of skill there. We haven’t seen a line play at that level. It’s my first time seeing (Kenny) Agostino. Clearly, he shows why he’s at the top of the league, the skill that he has. He’s in control of things out there. So it’s definitely a threat for them all the time when they’re out there. They’re definitely dangerous and they played a lot tonight. (They were) a headache for us,” he said.

CAVE and BLIDH

Neither has a point yet and they are a combined minus-7, but linemates Colby Cave and Anton Blidh played well on Friday and Saturday with a few different players on their right wing.

“They had a good weekend, energy all night, both nights. Really good on the kill.  We’ve been killing a lot of penalties and they’ve been excellent,” Leach said.

“Caver is starting to hold onto pucks a little more, which is nice to see. Bleeder, as well, has shown a little bit more of that good puck play that you saw when he went up (to Boston) last year, starting to be a little more polished there. Really, every shift they were out there, they made something happen. They were good.”

PENALTIES                                                                                                    

Penalties have been a problem for the P-Bruins through three games. They’ve been hit with a total of 20 penalties while their opponents have been assessed 11.

Blame the referees if you want, though only a handful of the calls have been shaky. Many of the penalties have been deserved.

Maybe the tide started to turn in the third period last night, when all three penalties went against the Marlies.

“(Toronto took) penalties when we start to take it to them and give the refs a reason (to call penalties on Toronto). It goes hand in hand. You can give (the refs) a little nudge, but it’s on us to draw penalties, to get them in the offensive zone, put (opponents) in a position to take those penalties that we were obviously taking in the first half of that game. It’s on us to make them make those calls,” said Leach.

PROVIDENCE — Tonight it’s the Toronto Marlies’ turn. They’ll try to do what the Springfield Thunderbirds couldn’t do: Stop Providence’s superb line of Kenny Agostino, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Peter Cehlarik.

Cehlarik (2-3-5), Agostino (1-4-5), and JFK (2-1-3) have been simply dominant through two games. I can’t imagine there is a better trio in the AHL right now.

“The thing that’s going on with that line that I find the most impressive — and obviously they are all skilled players who can make plays — is they track the crap out of pucks and hound it,” said coach Jay Leach.

“You’ve seen some lines in the past everywhere that just have more skill than everyone else. I’m not diminishing (the JFK line’s) skill, but the thing that they are doing so well is they just hound pucks. It’s fun to watch.”

For the P-Bruins, Colton Hargrove and Emil Johansson will make their season debuts tonight as Leach goes with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.

“We’ve got a lot of guys; we’ve got to get them in,” Leach said.

It will be Johansson’s first game since he went down with a concussion on a high hit by Buffalo’s Hudson Fasching in the Prospects Challenge last month.

Here is tonight’s lineup:

Agostino-JFK-Cehlarik

It’s wait-and-see on the other lines. The rest of the forwards will be Fitzgerald, Senyshyn, Blidh, Cave, Gabrielle, Porter, Payerl, Hargrove

Lauzon-Cross

Breen-Grzelcyk

O’Gara-Zboril

Johansson

McIntyre in goal with Binnington as the backup.

Scratches: Szwarz (lower body), Clifton, Hennessy, Acolatse, Hickman

PROVIDENCE — The Providence Bruins did enough to get the job done on Friday night, beating Springfield, 3-2. “Overall it was good. Our puck management was OK in the first, didn’t love that. Some of our penalties again ….,” said coach Jay Leach. “We were better in our D zone — and we skated. (The Thunderbirds) might not have a lot of finish, but they competed like bastards. I was happy with the way we matched that.”

Here are three takeaways:

AGOSTINO-JFK-CEHLARIK

Wow, they are good. It was another entertaining and productive night for Providence’s top line of Kenny Agostino (1-2-3), Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (1-0-1) and Peter Cehlarik (1-2-3). Springfield simply has had no answer for them in the first two games. There were shifts again on Friday night where the line barely allowed the Thunderbirds to touch the puck. Enjoy it while it lasts.

PENALTIES

After being penalized seven times in Game 1, the P-Bruins were whistled for seven more on Friday. They weren’t what you’d call aggressive penalties: Three for hooking, one each for holding, tripping (that one, on Justin Hickman, was a weak call), slashing and delay of game. It’s too many. A skilled Toronto club will be in town on Saturday. If the P-Bruins aren’t more careful, the Marlies’ power play could really make them pay.

ADAM PAYERL

I like what the big center/right wing brought to the lineup after being a healthy scratch on opening night. A straight-line player, he had some good moments on the penalty kill and finished his checks. “He was excellent. He skated. Competed. Had a couple of chances on the kill. He was effective,” said Leach.

PROVIDENCE — The Providence Bruins will be without two top-six forwards when they face the Springfield Thunderbirds tonight in the second game of the season for both teams.

Jordan Szwarz is out with a lower-body injury and Danton Heinen is on recall with Boston, where he recorded his first NHL assist in Wednesday night’s loss at Colorado.

“We’ve talked about how deep we are and now it’s our opportunity to show that and give some other guys opportunities. You are not going to replace Szwarzy or Heinz, but hopefully we can maybe have more of a committee-like attitude,” coach Jay Leach said this morning.

The P-Bruins beat the T-Birds, 5-2, on Saturday.

“I hope we’re tighter defensively in the D zone. I hope our puck management is a little better and our discipline is a little better with our penalties,” said Leach, who expects more from Springfield tonight.

“I think they’ll have urgency. I know their coaching staff and the way they’ve historically played. They’re a hard team, a proud team and I’m sure they’re coming in here with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder,” he said.

Here is tonight’s lineup:

Agostino-JFK-Cehlarik

Fitzgerald-Hennessey-Senyshyn

Blidh-Cave-Hickman

Gabrielle-Payerl-Porter

Lauzon-Cross

Breen-Grzelcyk

O’Gara-Zboril

McIntyre in goal with Binnington as the backup.

Scratches: Szwarz (lower body), Clifton, Johansson, Acolatse, Hargrove

PROVIDENCE — I had a chance to talk to Digit Murphy this week. It’s always a treat and inevitably I end up feeling invigorated. I don’t think I know anyone who is as passionate about the game as she is. She is around this week with her Kunlun Red Star team before heading back to China and spreading the gospel of pucks there.  My column on her will be in Friday’s Projo or you can read it here: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20171012/mark-divver-from-one-side-of-globe-to-other-digit-murphy-helping-grow-womens-hockey

PROVIDENCE – Providence College paid a price for its sweep at Miami over the weekend.

Junior winger Erik Foley and freshman winger Bailey Conger were injured in Saturday night’s 3-2 win.

Foley did not practice on Wednesday. It’s not known if he will be available for PC’s home opener on Sunday against Boston College.

Conger is expected to miss 6 to 8 weeks with a hand injury.

Foley, who scored a power play goal on Saturday after assisting on Josh Wilkins’ tally on Friday, was second in scoring for the Friars last season with 15-19-34 in 36 games

Good start for freshmen

Coach Nate Leaman was happy with the play of his three freshmen defensemen and three first-year forwards.

“The freshmen were good. I liked the freshmen. They all played well,” he said.

The newcomers got on the scoreboard, too. Greg Printz scored a breakaway goal on Friday night. Jason O’Neil recorded an assist and was plus-3.

“The key is consistency,’’ Leaman said.

PK gets job done

Special teams were strong for the Friars as they went 2-for-8 on the power play and killed 14 of 15 shorthanded situations.

“The penalty kill was great, led by (goalie Hayden Hawkey). It better be on the road. On the road there’s going to be a couple of calls (against the visiting team),” he said.

Hawkey gets off on right foot

Hawkey’s save percentage is .943 after stopping 49 of 52 shots. “Hawk had a real good weekend,’’ Leaman said.

BOSTON – Nothing went right for the Boston Bruins in Monday afternoon’s desultory 4-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. It was their own fault, coach included, as Bruce Cassidy was quick to point out afterward.  It was bad enough that breakdowns allowed Colorado to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but then Tuukka Rask made a colossal misjudgment on the Avs’ third goal in the third period and that was that.

Here are three thoughts from the game:

THE COACH

Attempting to deflect blame away from the players is right out of the coaches’ handbook. “We’ve got to coach better,’’ is one of Bill Belichick’s go-to lines after a loss. It may be a relatively minor point but all the same I like the way Cassidy included himself among those who fell short on Monday. “The core group that we rely on – it just wasn’t a good effort from young, old, in between. And clearly put myself in that category,’’ he said. I like a coach who will take a share of the heat when his team doesn’t measure up. And it’s probably something that won’t go unnoticed in the Bruins’ room.

THE ROOKIES

Yeah, I know plus-minus is just one stat among many and it’s been discredited a bit, but there’s no sugarcoating the fact that both Anders Bjork and Jake DeBrusk finished with a minus-3 and Charlie McAvoy with minus-2. Not good. What is at least a little encouraging is that the players owned up and said the right things. “It’s a game I want to forget – but use as a learning experience,’’ said DeBrusk, who played 13:00, down from 14:05 in Game 1. “They’re giving us chances. We definitely have to take advantage of them and learn from our mistakes,’’ added Bjork, who played 14:38 after logging 16:14 on opening night. McAvoy went from 22:00 in Game 1 to 19:28. Remember, there are going to be days, and nights, like this for the rookies. Now we see how they respond. “I think they are good bounce-back guys. They are high character, and they’ll keep coming. But tonight it just didn’t work out,’’ said Cassidy.

THE LINES

Cassidy, missing injured centers Patrice Bergeron and Noel Acciari, didn’t hesitate to mix things up when his team struggled. Bjork and DeBrusk started the day on a line with David Krejci. By the end,  Bjork was with Sean Kuraly and Ryan Spooner, while DeBrusk was with Riley Nash and Tim Schaller. Too soon? Nope. It was worth a try on a day when the Bruins spun their wheels. “I never found the right combination. So I think it goes on the players – it’s their job to play, whatever position – and it’s up to the coach to find the chemistry. I couldn’t find it, so shame on me,’’ said Cassidy.

PROVIDENCE – The days when nearly every AHL team carried a heavyweight or three on the roster are pretty much over.

In Providence, the departure of Tyler Randell, a top five pugilist in the league for several seasons, leaves the team without a go-to hard guy.

Coach Jay Leach, who logged 64 bouts during his playing career, believes his team won’t lack for toughness.

“I don’t think we have an issue with that. We’ve got guys that are gamers. Tommy (Cross), Breener (Chris Breen), they all can handle themselves if something gets out of hand. And we’ve got Sena (Acolatse) as an option, Hick (Justin Hickman), Adam (Payerl), Taylor Doherty. We’re fine,’’ said Leach.

“Identifying one guy, I always found that to be a little unfair. It’s a lot to put on a guy. And I don’t know how much it does for your team. If everyone just lets Tyler Randell take care of things and they can go do what they want …  to me that wasn’t a fair play for a guy like that.

“I would prefer us to be responsible for our teammates on the ice every shift, no matter if Adam Payerl or Hick or Sena’s out there or if it’s a skill line, they can all still get in there and take care of each other,’’ he said.

No wallowing

The disappointment of being cut by the NHL club in training camp is one of the hurdles that P-Bruins players have to get over, whether they are high draft picks or free agents.

“That’s part of being a pro. Managing  adversity.  Getting through some challenges. It’s part of the learning process. How they react to adversity and overcome it is part of the learning curve, part of professional development,’’ said John Ferguson Jr. , Providence general manager and Boston’s executive director of player personnel.

Leach, who played 12 seasons as a pro, feels their pain.

“You have to validate that. A lot of them had nice camps and they pushed. That’s what we asked; that’s what they did. We would never want to discount that, first and foremost. And then I think  you’re going to try to get them to a place where they accept where they are and build from there,’’ said Leach.

“Some it takes a little longer than others. Ultimately, they all figure out that it doesn’t do them any good to wallow. And I don’t think a lot of them, if any of them, do. On a personal level, I can share some experiences where I had a little bit of bitterness in me and it did affect me throughout the year. I will definitely share that experience.

“Training camp is a grueling time for a young kid. He shows up for the rookie tournament. Organizations are watching him play every single day for a month. They’ve got to perform under that microscope. If they’ve done well, we should – and we do – make sure they understand that we’re proud of them.  They probably need a day or two to just breathe,” Leach said.

Danton Heinen, for one, went right back to work after being sent down last week.

“He was firing pucks in practice, he was working on his sticks. He was ready to go,’’ said Leach.

Senyshyn on the board

Zach Senyshsyn got his first pro goal out of the way in the first game of the season on Saturday, burying a feed from linemate Chris Porter 45 seconds into the third period.

“I thought that overall he was good. I lost him in the second (period) when we had a lot of penalty kills,’’ said Leach.

“We got him right out there at the end of the second and in the third with (linemates Porter and Josh Hennessy) and they did an excellent job on the forecheck and (Senyshyn) was consistent the rest of the way through. He showed signs of his skating ability and disrupted some forechecks and in the neutral zone, so he was good.”

Playing with veterans such as Porter and Hennessey should be good for Senyshyn.

“Porter can really skate and obviously finishes (his hits) and it’s tough on defensemen. Zach and Ports, with that speed, it’s pretty nice.”

 

 

PROVIDENCE –Just like in Boston on Thursday night, the kids came through in impressive fashion in Providence’s 5-2 win in Saturday’s opener. Four of the goals were by rookies Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Ryan Fitzgerald and Zach Senyshyn and second-year pro Peter Cehlarik. Here are three takeaways:

CEHLARIK

Jay Leach put it best: “Peter Cehlarik looked like a man on a mission.’’ Did he ever. Cehlarik made Springfield defenseman Josh Brown look foolish and scored a pretty goal in the first period. Then he froze goalie Harri Sateri and fed Forsbacka Karlsson for an easy score. Impressive for a guy who did not play any preseason games after undergoing shoulder surgery in May. After the game, rink rat Cehlarik was at the stick rack working on a stick, even though the P-Bruins have Sunday off.  With Don Sweeney (who was at the game) mulling a callup after the injury to Noel Acciari in Boston, Cehlarik picked a perfect time to have a great game.

McINTYRE

Zane McIntyre delivered some very timely saves on Saturday. Springfield had chances to take the lead early, but he shut the door. Guarding the lead in the second period, he made a pair of terrific stops and the P-Bruins finished the period up by three. “Early on in the season you’re going to have breakdowns. Zano was huge on those breakdowns for us,’’ said Leach. McIntyre had a great season a year ago. If he can come to close to matching that this season, Providence will be in great shape.

ROOKIE DEFENSEMEN

The American Hockey League can eat up rookie defensemen, but Jakub Zboril, Jeremy Lauzon and Connor Clifton acquitted themselves well on Saturday. They’ll have their struggles at times, but Saturday was a positive, confidence-building start. “We’ll have our (video) clips for them. We have some stuff to work with, but I thought that throughout the game they started to find their feet a little bit, and see the structure,’’ said Leach. “First pro game (for all three) with a good crowd, playing with some pretty good players, there’s probably some expectation there – our forwards want the puck, so get it to them. I thought throughout the night (the three rookies) got better as every shift went by.’’