The start of the season has been a rough one for Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei

The start of the season has been a rough one for Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei, who finished with a dismal minus-three rating in the team's opening game against the Florida Panthers. Lohrei, a promising 23-year-old prospect, was expected to play a key role on the Bruins' blue line this season, but his shaky performance in the opener has now landed him in the press box as a healthy scratch for Thursday night's home opener against the rival Montreal Canadiens. Head coach Jim Montgomery explained that the decision to bench Lohrei, as well as hard-hitting forward Max Jones, was not a punishment per se, but rather an opportunity to get some fresh faces into the lineup and allow everyone to get acclimated to the NHL game speed early in the year. While the Bruins will undoubtedly miss Lohrei's puck-moving abilities and offensive instincts from the back end, Montgomery felt it was important to get defenseman Parker Wotherspoon and newcomer Riley Tufte into the mix, with Wotherspoon slotting in on the third pairing alongside Andrew Peeke to help shore up the defensive zone coverage in front of goaltender Jeremy Swayman. 

The towering 6-foot-6, 230-pound Tufte, who signed with the Bruins in the offseason, will make his team debut on the third line, bringing some much-needed size and physicality to the forward group. Though Lohrei and Jones may feel hard done by the decision, Montgomery stressed that the entire team struggled in the opener against Florida, and this was simply an opportunity to evaluate some different personnel options as Boston looks to bounce back in their home opener against their historic rival from Montreal. It will be an intriguing chess match to see how the Bruins' revamped lineup fares against the Canadiens, with Lohrei and Jones no doubt eager to reclaim their spots in the lineup with a strong performance from the press box.