Bruins D-Man’s ‘World-Class’ Assist Leads Effort From Depleated Blue Line

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have been without Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm on the blue line for nine games.

Mason Lohrei has been one of the Bruins’ defenders asked to step up in their absence. Not only has his ice time increased, but the 24-year-old defenseman has also been called upon when the game is on the line.

In the Bruins overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, Lohrei led all defensemen 22:05 of ice time and recorded two assists, including a beautiful outlet pass on David Pastrnak’s breakaway goal to open the scoring just 29 seconds into the game.

“I mean a world-class pass,” Pastrnak said. “I was surprised it landed right on my stick. I didn’t give it many chances with those two guys diving for the puck, so a world-class pass. I’m happy I buried that one.”

Despite the outstanding pass to Pastrnak, Lohrei made some tough defensive plays that led to Toronto odd-man rushes. Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman stopped Steven Lorentz’s shorthanded rush after Lohrei fumbled a puck at the offensive blue line. However, another mishandling of the puck resulted in Mitch Marner’s game-winning tally in overtime.

Even with the ups and downs, Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco is pleased with Lohrei’s play.

“Mason did a lot of good things tonight,” Sacco said. “There’s a couple of breakdowns here and there. Mason did a lot of good things tonight, especially early on. He was ready to play.”

The Bruins have lost four straight games, but coming out of the 4 Nations break, the club has taken two out of four possible points. Lohrei is looking to help the team in any way he can.

“I know what kind of player I am, what kind of player I want to be,” Lohrei said. “It’s one of those things where I’m just trying to … every day, I want to be that guy that creates a lot and doesn’t give up anything. Continuing to work on that, that’s all you can do.”

Lohrei leads all Bruins defensemen with 27 points and is third on the team in assists with 24, behind only Pastrnak (42) and Brad Marchand (26).