Bruins injuries: Kevan Miller expected to return Wednesday; McAvoy, Vaakanainen to rejoin team in Detroit

Little by little, reinforcements are on the way for the Bruins’ beleaguered blue line.

Before the team flew out to Detroit for the final leg of its four-game road trip, Bruce Cassidy noted that defenseman Kevan Miller should be cleared to return to game action for Wednesday’s matchup against the Red Wings.

Miller has missed the last 13 games due to a broken hand, which the veteran suffered while blocking a shot against the Oilers back on Oct. 18. While he has been unable to play in a game for over a month, Miller has practiced with the team on the road for the past week while clearing the final hurdles on his road to recovery.

“Kevan, I expect him to play,” Cassidy said. “That's the plan. We'll see. He'll be a game-time decision, but he came on this trip for that reason, he's been practicing. He'll practice tomorrow and should be cleared and good to go for Wednesday."

A few other banged-up blueliners will also return to the Bruins on Tuesday, with both Charlie McAvoy and Urho Vaakanainen expected to rejoin the club for their practice in Detroit.

Cassidy noted that both McAvoy (concussion-like symptoms) and Vaakanainen (concussion) will not play on Wednesday, but returning to full practices should signal the final stages in their recovery.

Both defensemen have been taking part in conditioning skating back in Boston with Bruins skating and skills coach Kim Brandvold, with Cassidy adding that McAvoy and Vaakanainen should be cleared for battle drills on Tuesday with the rest of the club.

“They're ready to get involved with the team and we'll see where it leads from there,” Cassidy said of McAvoy and Vaakanainen. "I couldn't tell you now when they'd be joining the lineup. I think some of it depends on how they get through a team practice and the physical part of it. Not Wednesday and even the weekend, they'd be questionable at best.”

While Boston’s D corps is slowly on the mend, Cassidy didn’t have much of an update for center Patrice Bergeron, who suffered an upper-body injury against the Stars on Friday after getting slammed into the boards. Bergeron flew back to Boston on Sunday night from Arizona and is still undergoing testing.

“He's meeting today (with doctors) so we have nothing new,” Cassidy said of Bergeron. “I know he was in a lot of pain, but I don't know if there was anything major, which is good news, but again, I don't want to speculate. I just know that he's not coming back to Detroit on Wednesday and then from there, we'll probably have a better update maybe as early as tomorrow.”

BSJ Analysis

Boston’s D corps is still in rough shape with at least two rookies expected to once again log heavy minutes on Wednesday, but the return of Miller does give the B’s another reliable veteran to turn to going forward.

Prior to going down with his injury against the Oilers, Miller had logged 18:07 TOI while providing the usual hard-nosed, physical play that the California native has become known for over the years.

Ideally, Miller won’t need to test that fractured hand against an opposing player’s bucket or face right out of the gate, but having a player willing to drop the gloves is also a positive development for the Black and Gold — who have had skill players like Brad Marchand and Torey Krug get into way more scrums than a skater of their caliber should get involved in.

While Miller is a right-shot defenseman, Cassidy noted that the veteran’s return doesn’t exactly signal that fellow right-shot D Connor Clifton will sit against Detroit.

While the Quinnipiac product has had a couple of miscues (two delay of game penalties and a turnover that led to Arizona’s lone goal on Saturday), Clifton has made his presence felt in both games he’s played in thanks to a willingness to throw his weight around and activate with Boston’s forwards in the right situation.

While Clifton has averaged 19:28 TOI since getting called up from Providence, left-shot D Jakub Zboril has only averaged 10:56 TOI during that same stretch — by far the fewest reps on the blue line since Boston’s defense took even hits with the loss of Zdeno Chara and John Moore.

“We'd have to discuss that,” Cassidy said. “Zboril was the last one in, so we could certainly balance the pairs. You'd still have three rights — Clifton, Miller and (Steven) Kampfer. … Wouldn't be (Jeremy) Lauzon. He's been steady, we've been happy with his game. Torey (Krug) stays in, (Matt Grzelcyk)will stay in."

While the Lauzon-Grzelcyk pairing has been effective as of late, Miller’s return could prompt Cassidy to pair up the 21-year-old Lauzon with an older veteran — which seems to fit Cassidy’s current philosophy of pairing up a younger defenseman with an NHL regular as the team looks to fight through its latest string of injuries.  

"We had Lauzon and Gryz because we like the way Lauzy defends,” Cassidy said. “It’s his size and some speed. Guy that's been in the league with a younger kid. Krug and Clifton — Krug's been around, Clifton is a competitive guy, Krug is a puck mover, so we try to balance that off.

“Zboril and Kampfer next, Kampfer has been around a long time and Zboril is brand new. A little bit of young and old with each pair, even though I wouldn't call Gryz old by any means, even Krug. But they've played in games. that was the thinking.”