Here are your daily news and notes from the Bruins’ morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena Thursday. The Black and Gold will face off against the Oilers tonight at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Nordstrom in, Donato out:
As Bruce Cassidy hinted Wednesday afternoon, the Black and Gold will make a tweak on the second line for Thursday’s game against the Oilers — with Joakim Nordstrom slotting in at the left wing on David Krejci’s line.
Jake DeBrusk will move to his off wing to Krejci’s right, while Ryan Donato will be scratched for the matchup.
“We’ve talked to Jake about that, he’s looking forward to that side,” Cassidy said of the lineup change. “He’s had some success over there, early season, getting around guys from that side. One of things about playing your off side, nowadays, especially early in the year when everyone’s got energy, is that you’ve got to be able to separate the puck between the blue lines and he’s done a good job with that.”
Nordstrom was the odd man out of Monday’s home win over the Ottawa Senators, with the offseason signing largely serving in a bottom-six role during his previous tenure with the Hurricanes. He tallied two goals and five assists over 75 games last season with Carolina.
While Donato tallied a power-play goal during Thursday’s 4-0 win over the Sabres, the 22-year-old winger struggled at times during his next matchup against the Sens, logging just 12:56 of ice time while being out for two goals against the Black and Gold.
“We’re not set on who’s going to be our automatic 13th forward,” Cassidy said. “We’re still looking at combinations and at the end of the day, play better if you want to stay in the lineup. That’s usually the last message if guys are confused. (Ryan’s) not, by any means.
“But if that’s the case, you’ve got to earn your spot and keep it. … For me, I thought his last game, his details weren’t great, and that’s on us to make them better and teach him. And some of it is picking him up, so we’re going to meet halfway on that and hopefully next time out, he’s better.”
A late addition to the B’s roster last season after wrapping up his junior campaign at Harvard, Donato occasionally found himself watching games up at the press level last year — skating in only three of Boston’s 12 postseason matchups.
Despite Thursday’s scratch, Donato noted that he’s going to make the news into a positive.
“I think one thing that I think was the biggest benefit was being pissed off and wanting to come back hard,” Donato said of getting scratched last season. “I think that’s something that this time does and being above, there’s things that you learn in the game and it’s hard to see that when you’re on the ice. Being able to go above and get that hunger that when I get my number called, make sure I give it all I got and don’t take any shifts off.”
Nordstrom’s established 200-foot-game might come in handy Thursday when it comes to keeping tabs on a skilled Oilers forward group headlined by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but it will be interesting to see how much of a scoring oomph the winger can provide to a line that’s been limited to just a single point to start the year.
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