3 Studs (& 2 Duds) From the First Week of the Bruins' Season

Dud: Jakob Lauko

As a rookie in 2022-23, Jakob Lauko showed a fair amount of potential. The former 2018 third-rounder spent most of last year in the minors but managed to suit up across 26 games with Boston between the regular season and playoffs, registering four goals and four assists.

If he could continue that production this year, it'd put him on pace for about 13 goals and 13 assists in 82 games — pretty solid for a fourth-liner with scoring upside.

Unfortunately, Lauko hasn't left much of an impact to begin the new season. The 23-year-old is without a point while his on-ice goal differential (minus-3) is significantly worse than it was expected to be (minus-0.2) — both ranking the worst among all Bruins forwards.

What makes matters worse is than 80% of his shifts have started in the defensive zone, which is an area he's clearly struggling in at the momentum. Perhaps head coach Jim Montgomery well rethink how/where he uses the Czech forward.

At the end of the day, Lauko hasn't been awful, but he also hasn't done anything to stand out for the better. If the Bruins want to have four lines that can do damage on any given night, Lauko needs to get rolling sooner rather than later.