Bruins Notebook: Charlie McAvoy’s status still up in the air, new Winter Classic jerseys unveiled taken at Warrior Ice Arena (Bruins)

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Bruins Notebook: Charlie McAvoy’s status still up in the air, new Winter Classic jerseys unveiled

By Conor Ryan

Nov 8, 2018 • 1:32 pm

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A Bruins forward not named Bergeron, Marchand or Pastrnak has yet to light the lamp in five-on-five play for the Boston Bruins since Oct. 20, but Bruce Cassidy isn’t doing too much tinkering with his lineup ahead of Thursday’s tilt with Vancouver.

Rather, the lineup that Boston rolled out in its 2-1 win over Dallas on Monday will be almost exactly the same as what the B’s will feature against the Canucks — the lone change being a switch in net with Jaroslav Halak getting the call.

"Everybody healthy is in,” Cassidy said following Thursday’s optional skate at Warrior Ice Arena. “Halak is in net. Lines are the same as yesterday, pairings. We'll go from there."

While their top line (Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak) and fourth line (Wagner-Kuraly-Acciari) have remained largely intact as of late, Monday’s game saw the Bruins shuffle around their second and third lines again — with Joakim Nordstrom skating on David Krejci’s left side on the second line and David Backes centering Danton Heinen and Anders Bjork.

BSJ Analysis



While Monday’s overtime win over the Stars featured more of the same in terms of top-line production (and not much else), Cassidy has mentioned numerous times that a number of stagnant lines took steps in the right direction on a night that saw Boston out-attempt Dallas by a staggering 61-29 margin.

In particular, the dormant third line showed signs of breaking out — with Heinen-Backes-Bjork holding a 15-5 edge in attempts and 4-0 advantage in scoring chances during the 10 minutes of 5v5 TOI they had on Monday.

While Cassidy is expecting his lines to start producing sooner rather than later, he’s also not willing to let his latest lineup shuffle sit and develop if the group’s offensive numbers continue to taper off.

"Second and third line, we're still experimenting,” Cassidy said. “At home, you have a little more control over your matchups, obviously. So that's part of it. But until it's consistently consistent, we'll mess around with it. Until we get a little more scoring, we'll probably still move some people around. But I think the other night was a step in the right direction, at least opportunity wise. Now, it's a matter of finishing."

____________


Still no timetable on Charlie McAvoy


While both
Urho Vaakanainen
(concussion) and
Kevan Miller
(hand) have been regular sights on the ice leading up to practices, the same can’t be said for
Charlie McAvoy,
who has yet to play in a game since Oct. 18 due to an upper-body injury.


McAvoy is not skating yet, even though Cassidy has noted that McAvoy has been around Warrior Ice Arena and has been working out during his recovery process.


As has been the case for the last three weeks, there hasn’t been much of an update in regards to McAvoy’s progression — mostly because there hasn’t been too much.


"I wish I had great answers for you in that,” Cassidy said. “If there was any news, I would hope that we would provide an update. But it really hasn't changed. He's not skating. He's around, doing off-ice workouts and that's kind of where he's been at.


"He hasn't been shut down specifically — we didn't say, 'Ok, he's out for three weeks off the ice.' It's a matter of him feeling up to the next stage, which would be hopefully getting on the ice and skating. ... That's between him and the medical staff and him to make that determination. From there, it's getting into practice and getting into game shape. Listen, I hope he's on the ice tomorrow. But I don't have much for you."


While Cassidy mentioned that a high hit in an earlier game against Edmonton on Oct. 11 might have been the culprit for McAvoy’s ailment, he later added that he was “not aware” of it being a concussion, noting that McAvoy has felt off since the team’s trip to China.



The team has also denied that this current injury is anything relating to the irregular heartbeat that forced him to undergo a minor procedure last season.


While the Bruins are 4-2-1 without McAvoy in the lineup, Boston has sorely missed the young defenseman’s ability to get up the ice in a hurry and break the puck out.

_____________


B’s unveil new Winter Classic jerseys


The Bruins went retro once again with their latest Winter Classic jerseys — unveiling the new sweaters that the Black and Gold will don on January 1 at Notre Dame Stadium against the Blackhawks. 


The jerseys stand as an homage to the team’s sweaters during the
Eddie Shore
era of the 1930s, with the brown and gold uniform sporting a felt “B” logo and the years of the franchise’s Stanley Cup championships printed on shamrocks and located on the inside collar.




This will be the third time that the Bruins have participated in a Winter Classic, first donning a gold jersey with the rounded Spoked-B from the 1948-49 season during the 2010 event.


Then, in 2016, the Bruins opted for a black sweater with a logo similar to what the franchise rolled out in the 1924 season.


It may not be the
we were all hoping for (what, just me?) but these new sweaters are pretty sharp.

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