Marco Sturm just explained why Mason Lohrei is out of the Bruins lineup tonight against the Wild, and he didn't soften it.
It's the first time this season the defenseman has been scratched. Connor Clifton draws in on the third pair with Frederic Brunet, according to Jim McBride.
Lohrei had played all 19 games until now, so this isn't a player who has been drifting in and out of the lineup. Sturm pointed to the pair's play against Montreal on Thursday, a 5-2 loss.
Sturm said the pair "spent way too much time in our end" and that there were "a lot of turnovers."
The harder line came next. Sturm said Lohrei is "not the young, young kid anymore, so it's a little bit higher standard now."
Per Boston Hockey Now, Sturm also said the last game maybe wasn't Lohrei's best but that "in general he can be better," and that "we just can't afford having a pair like that."
That is a coach talking to a 25-year-old, 6-foot-5 defenseman drafted 58th overall in 2020, not to a prospect still being developed. Lohrei has 210 NHL games behind him and a -26 rating over that span, and the benefit of the doubt gets thinner with each one.
Does the scratch change how Lohrei is viewed around the league?
It lands at an awkward moment. Lohrei's name has been in trade chatter, and two young Bruins keep surfacing in trade talk, as we covered earlier this week.
On Friday, David Pagnotta said Matthew Poitras's and Lohrei's names "are always kind of out there," and that the Bruins are not exclusively looking at this season.
Nothing here says a deal is close. Still, a scratch is a public statement of standards, and it comes with the team at 13-5-1 and no reason to panic.
The season numbers are fine on paper: 3 goals and 3 assists with a +2 rating. Sturm clearly cares more about what happens in the defensive zone than what shows up on the scoresheet, and we think he's right to demand it from a defenseman in his fourth NHL season.
Clifton, with 7 games played this season, gets the opening, and Brunet stays on the third pair. The Wild arrive 14-3-4 and second in the NHL, so Sturm's new pairing gets a real test right away. Whether Lohrei returns for the next game is a call Sturm hasn't announced.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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