While the Bruins are starting to find some consistency among their forward corps over the last week, the club did make a minor adjustment to its roster following Monday’s practice — waiving center Colby Cave.
As a result, the remaining 31 teams in the NHL now have a chance to snatch up the 24-year-old center, who will remain on the waiver wire for 24 hours. If no team opts to claim him, Cave will be assigned back to Providence.
After opening the 2018-19 season by tallying 18 points over 15 games with the P-Bruins, Cave was called up to Boston in November, with the center tallying a goal and adding four assists over 20 games up at the NHL level.
While the two-way pivot was a spark plug when first promoted, Cave only tallied one assist over his final seven games before getting scratched after a win over the Flames on Jan. 3. Since then, Cave has been left out of the lineup for the next four matchups.
At this point, allowing Cave to earn regular reps down in the AHL seems like a prudent move, but the timing of the move is a bit odd.
While Cave will likely resume his top-six role down in Providence, the Baby Bruins don’t play in another game until Friday. Why not keep him up with Boston in order to practice with NHL-level talent?
Also, Cave’s departure from Boston’s roster is a bit curious, as Joakim Nordstrom is still about a week away from being re-evaluated for a broken leg that he suffered during the Winter Classic. Perhaps another player from Providence could get a call up on Tuesday if Cave does clear, although two likely candidates in both Anders Bjork and Ryan Fitzgerald are currently injured.
Could a trade be brewing? You’d think that Don Sweeney and Co. would sit a bit to monitor the trade market given the fact that Boston’s roster has rarely been completely healthy and functioning all season long. However, it seems as though clubs like the Oilers and Ducks are accelerating the market a bit ahead of schedule.
The Ducks might be looking to sell off some assets while in the midst of an 11-game losing streak, while the Oilers are doing everything in their power to prevent a sinking ship.
Bergeron line looking to get rolling
While Boston’s top line of
Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand
and
David Pastrnak
have combined for 32 points since getting reunited on Dec. 22, the trio has been stymied a bit during 5v5 play as of late.
Over the last 10 games, the Bergeron line has generated three goals together during 5v5 play, while also relinquishing seven goals against. Not too great. Still,
Bruce Cassidy
believes that trio is due for another dominant outing in short order. Boston’s bench boss was encouraged by an outing against Toronto on Saturday that saw his three top forwards combine for nine individual scoring chances — one of which led to Pastrnak’s eventual game-winning goal in the closing minute of the second period.
“I think they were much better against Toronto,” Cassidy said of his top line. “They generated. They were just off net a little bit with chances. So they’re going to come out of it if they keep playing like that. Why? It’s puck possession. They’re hanging on to it longer in the o-zone. They can score off the rush, but their biggest threat is their o-zone puck play.
“That’s when they get real dangerous, when they start making those tic-tac-toe plays, those great ones usually when the other team gets out of position. When you get them out of position, you’ve got to attempt something at the net and recover a puck. It’s hard to practice those things. Everyone practices from a set kind of position and off you go, but the goalie’s out of position, too. There’s different things that go into it, but that’s why they were good. Toronto is a little slot vulnerable and they got some looks like there the other night. ... Montreal, we’re hoping to attack them the same way.”
Staying put on blue line
After a strong outing against a high-powered Toronto offense on Saturday, Boston’s D pairings are remaining intact for Monday’s matchup against the Montreal Canadiens.
That means yet another scratch for
John Moore
—
since the return of Charlie McAvoy on Saturday. Even though this current lineup is not set in stone going forward, Cassidy did admit that he likes the current structure of his D corps.
“I think the Chara/McAvoy (pairing), we like,” Cassidy said. “Krug/Carlo, we’re trying to build. We’ve always liked Grizz and Miller. So they’ve kind of fallen into place for us. Now, John Moore goes in — then who comes out? If it’s Grizz, then we probably slide (Moore) right in with Miller.
"Yet, Krug and Miller have played together, too, so maybe we’d look at Moore and Carlo down the road as well. I don’t think we’re going anywhere with the Chara-McAvoy pair right now. Kind of like what they bring. What you see right now, we’re not really going to change, unless there’s an off night where guys don’t have it and we’ve got to mix it up.”
