{"id":582497,"date":"2026-05-24T08:39:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/582497\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:39:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:39:41","slug":"early-check-in-on-bruins-at-iihf-world-championships-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/582497\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Check-in on Bruins at IIHF World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight Boston Bruins<\/a> are in Fribourg and Zurich, Switzerland, representing their home countries at the 2026 IIHF World Championships<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an opportunity for the younger players to further their development, as well as give veterans the opportunity to continue taking reps throughout the summer. Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, who has coached Team Germany in this tournament, has talked about how pivotal this tournament is for the development of younger players<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through the first three or four games of the tournament, multiple Bruins have seen their usage shift. Some players are in new roles, some are returning to familiar ones, and some are adjusting to reduced ice time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEAM USA<\/p>\n

Mason Lohrei<\/a> (No. 16): 4 GP, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points; +1, 0 PIM, 3 SOG; 19:21 ATOI<\/p>\n

James Hagens<\/a> (No. 10): 3 GP, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points; even, 2 PIM, 2 SOG; 12:31 ATOI<\/p>\n

Alex Steeves<\/a> (No. 21): 4 GP, 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points; even, 0 PIM, 9 SOG; 15:08 ATOI<\/p>\n

Alex Steeves is the only Bruin to score for the Americans, and did so in the USA\u2019s first game of the tournament. He added an assist on Wednesday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steeves saw top-line minutes for two games, though Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>\u2019s addition to the team moved Steeves to the second line on Wednesday. He started the tournament on the third line, but was moved up after a player of the game performance in the pre-tournament exhibition and a goal in the first game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lohrei, one of two returners for Team USA, has been spending time on the top defensive pairing. He has been playing big minutes for the United States, ranking second on the team in average ice time, only behind his partner Justin Faulk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Hagens centered the second line during the exhibition game against Germany, but has not returned to the middle of the ice. Instead, he is seeing limited minutes on the left side of the fourth line. He drew out of the lineup for the USA on Wednesday, and through three games, he averaged 12:31 of ice time, the third-lowest among forwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEAM FINLAND<\/p>\n

Henri Jokiharju<\/a> (No. 10): 3 GP, 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point; +1, 2 PIM, 3 SOG; 16:33 ATOI<\/p>\n

Joonas Korpisalo<\/a> (No. 70): 1 GP, 1-0-0; 9 saves, .900 SV%, 1.00 GAA<\/p>\n

Korpisalo has played in just one game for Finland. He started in their second game, coming against Hungary, and he made nine saves on 10 shots. He backed up Justus Annunen<\/a> in Finland\u2019s tournament opener and did not dress against the United States.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jokiharju has been a constant on the Finnish second pair of defense, averaging over 16 and a half minutes of ice time playing on the right side of Mikko Lehtonen<\/a>. He had a helper in the 4-1 win over Hungary, picking up a secondary assist on Janne Kuokkanen<\/a>\u2019s late second-period goal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finland plays again on Thursday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEAM CANADA<\/p>\n

Fraser Minten<\/a> (No. 93): 3 GP; 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 points; +1, 2 PIM, 1 SOG; 13:38 ATOI<\/p>\n

Minten has been centering the fourth line for Canada, playing with Philadelphia\u2019s Porter Martone<\/a> and New Jersey\u2019s Connor Brown<\/a>. He had three points in his first two games, then was held off the scoresheet in Canada\u2019s third game against Denmark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada also plays on Thursday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEAM GERMANY<\/p>\n

Lukas Reichel<\/a> (No. 73): 3 GP; 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points; -2, 0 PIM, 3 SOG; 13:16 ATOI<\/p>\n

Reichel did not play in Germany\u2019s first game, as he was a late addition to their roster. He is coming off an Olympic campaign where he scored twice and had an assist, and he has started his World Championships with two assists.<\/p>\n

He spent his first two games on the second line before moving to the first for Germany\u2019s game against the United States on Wednesday. The move proved beneficial, as he set up linemate Frederik Tiffels<\/a> for a goal<\/a>. They have connected twice this tournament<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEAM CZECHIA<\/p>\n

Matej Bl\u00fcmel<\/a> (No. 81): 3 GP; 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 points; +2, 2 PIM, 11 SOG, 16:52 ATOI<\/p>\n

Bl\u00fcmel leads all eight Bruins representatives with four points at the tournament. Despite being scratched for Czechia\u2019s overtime loss against Slovenia, he has played on the first line in each of the three games he dressed for. He skated with Lukas Sedlak<\/a> and Roman Cervenka<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Czechia\u2019s first game, he potted an empty-netter and had a two-point night. He followed up with a goal in Czechia\u2019s third game, a 4-3 win over Sweden.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the tournament schedule, check it out here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FOLLOW @JACKSTUDLEY13 ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a>\u00a0 | FOLLOW @BOSHockeyNow ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight Boston Bruins are in Fribourg and Zurich, Switzerland, representing their home countries at the 2026 IIHF World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[2664,154,95,5132,530,4112,1754,5,303,373,1619,8669,1714,19401,4],"class_list":["post-582497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-bruins","tag-alex-steeves","tag-boston","tag-boston-bruins","tag-bostonbruins","tag-bruins","tag-fraser-minten","tag-henri-jokiharju","tag-hockey","tag-iihf-world-championships","tag-james-hagens","tag-joonas-korpisalo","tag-lukas-reichel","tag-mason-lohrei","tag-matej-blumel","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116628656217420119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}