Day 8 of the Bruins’ “Return to Play” featured one of the largest squads that Bruce Cassidy and his staff have managed to assemble while navigating through the wide-ranging protocols under the “unfit to participate” designation.
But Tuesday’s skate and following scrimmage was still marked by the absence of a few key cogs in the B’s lineup, as Boston was without David Pastrnak, Ondrej Kase, Charlie McAvoy and Joakim Nordstrom during the club’s scheduled session at Warrior Ice Arena.
McAvoy has now missed two straight practices, while both Pastrnak and Kase have now been held out of seven of Boston’s first eight practices during Phase 3.
Boston has managed to circumvent – at least temporarily — the challenges involved with ramping things back up without two top-six wingers by slotting in both Anders Bjork and Karson Kuhlman next to the right of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, respectively, during drills and scrimmages.
But on Tuesday, Cassidy opted to shake things up a bit — bumping youngster Jack Studnicka up to the top line next to Bergeron and Brad Marchand during a number of shifts. It didn't take very long for Studnicka to make his presence felt in his new spot, with the 21-year-old forward carrying the puck through the neutral zone on the rush before eventually setting up Zdeno Chara for a goal from the slot.
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While Studnicka — who has primarily played at center in his young career — remained at the pivot through the first week of Phase 3 activities, Cassidy explained that Boston's decision to keep the club's top prospect at his usual position was designed to ease him into what has already been a frantic acceleration of hockey activities in Brighton.
But given both the strides Studnicka has made so far in camp, coupled with the continued absence of Pastrnak and Kase, those training wheels could be coming off later this week.
"You get into the second week and you start to wonder about — 'Okay, chemistry, who fits best with who?' We have next week to do that as well. So Jack — when you go Bergey, Krejci, Coyle, Kuraly, Lindholm, the biggest strength of our team is our play down the middle," Cassidy said. So if Jack's going to have an opportunity to get in the lineup, we've got to look at him at the right wing. Now, Pasta and Kase aren't here. Wagner has missed a few days. So it kind of opens it up for him a little bit if that trend continues, so we put him on the right today.
"I liked his confidence. He made plays. Obviously made a play on Zee's goal, but in general, he seems to be a little more confident. That probably has to do with the full year of pro under his belt, played a few games for us. (He) knows he belongs. Obviously it's an unknown for him, what playoff hockey looks like, but we've had guys go through that, so that won't scare us off if he outplays guys, but we're a long way away from that. But we are going to give him a look on the right side. He does shoot right. Something else we're missing on our right side as well. So we'll see how that plays out the rest of the week and if continues to go well then we'll give him a look down the road and see if he's a better fit than then than another player."
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Marchand – Bergeron – Bjork/Studnicka
DeBrusk – Krejci – Kuhlman/Blidh
Ritchie – Coyle – Kuraly/Senyshyn
Frederic/Carey – Lindholm – Wagner
Chara – Clifton/Vaakanainen
Krug – Carlo
Grzelcyk – Lauzon
Moore – Zboril
Rask
Halak
Vladar
Lagace
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