Here are your daily news and notes from the Bruins’ morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena Wednesday. The Black and Gold will face off against the Oilers on Thursday at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Nordstrom likely in Thursday
Boston’s practice lineups Wednesday were largely unchanged from the group that posted a 6-3 win over the Senators on Monday, but Bruce Cassidy did note the Black and Gold will likely make one tweak ahead of Thursday’s tilt with Edmonton.
After earning occasional reps on the second line with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk Wednesday, forward Joakim Nordstrom will likely get back on the ice for Thursday’s game after serving as a scratch in Monday’s home opener.
With Cassidy noting that both the fourth line (Chris Wagner/Sean Kuraly/Noel Acciari) and third line (Danton Heinen/David Backes/Anders Bjork) will likely remain intact for the time being, there’s a good chance that Nordstrom could start on Krejci’s line in place of Ryan Donato — who was a minus-2 and had just 12:56 of ice time against the Senators.
“Until we get ourselves firmly where we believe it’s line one through four, we’re going to probably move people around,” Cassidy said. “Keep it competitive, so to speak. Pretty good chance (Nordstrom) will go in (Thursday). If he has to play on that (second) line, that’s fine.
“He’s been in a skill position in the past. … Maybe Ryan comes out. Part of that is just understand the details of the game and what’s needed every night. We’ve done that with every young player last year.”
Other than Nordstrom’s likely addition, no other major shuffling from the Black and Gold on Wednesday. As for the chance of splitting up the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak trio?
"No. Hands off,” Cassidy said. “Right where they are, right now in my pockets. They're not getting changed up."
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