3 observations from Bruins’ scrimmage, penultimate practice at Warrior Ice Arena

With the Bruins just days away from heading up to Toronto for Phase 4 of the NHL’s “Return to Play” plan, here are three observations from Friday’s penultimate practice at Warrior Ice Arena. 

Bruins are hoping for a full traveling party up to Toronto:

As far as attendance goes, Friday’s on-ice session was once again headlined by the absence of both David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase — with the Czech wingers only appearing on the ice at Boston’s Brighton facility once since Phase 3 opened up on July 13. 

Nick Ritchie was also MIA for the second straight practice, while Paul Carey also did not participate. 

At this point, it seems like a bit of a lost cause when it comes to expecting Pastrnak and Kase to get back on the sheet Saturday morning for Boston’s final Phase 3 practice. 

But Bruce Cassidy did note that the greater fear — in which both skaters aren’t cleared for the team’s charter to Toronto — might not actually come to fruition. 

Offering a sliver of optimism when asked about the likelihood of a departing Boston with a full travel party, Cassidy believes that all players and staff should be accounted for by the time the club goes wheels up to Ontario on Sunday. 

"It's been indicated to me and of course that could change. But that's the plan right now,” Cassidy said. “I mean, you've seen it, day-to-day, you get guys that, for whatever reason, are not able to participate. Today was no different with Paul Carey. We hope that everyone is cleared to go at 5:30 on Sunday, unless we hear differently."

This falls in line with Cam Neely’s comments on Wednesday, in which he expected both Pastrnak and Kase would not be available for on-ice work until the club had already made it up to Toronto. 

Granted, having a full roster make the trip up to Canada is still great news for this Bruins club, given what has been a tumultuous Phase 3. But still, even with a full complement of skaters available, both Pastrnak and Kase are going to be behind the eight ball when it comes to getting back up to speed — especially with an exhibition matchup against the Blue Jackets scheduled for Thursday. 

Here’s the lineup that Boston rolled with on Friday afternoon: 

Marchand – Bergeron – Bjork
DeBrusk – Krejci – Studnicka
Kuraly – Coyle – Kuhlman
Nordstrom – Lindholm – Wagner
Blidh – Frederic – Senyshyn

Chara – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Grzelcyk – Lauzon
Moore – Clifton
Vaakanainen – Zboril

Rask
Halak
Vladar
Lagace

There’s a pretty legitimate shot we could see either Bjork or Studnicka in a top-six spot through the round-robin: 



As noted above, even if Kase is able to practice up in Toronto, there's no guarantee that the winger can step right into a top-six role with this club by the time things start to ramp up — especially with round-robin play scheduled to begin on August 2nd.

As such, don't be surprised if Cassidy and the Bruins give either Anders Bjork or Jack Studnicka an extended look next to David Krejci over the next 10-12 days, especially if Boston opts to ease Kase back into practices and different lineup groupings. Both Bjork and Studnicka switched spots at RW on both Krejci and Patrice Bergeron's lines throughout Friday's practice.

Now, if Kase is able to hit the ground running over the next week and settle into a role to Krejci's right, the job becomes much easier for Cassidy and his staff. But given the lack of clarity in terms of Kase's status, coupled with the fact that he had yet to gel with any center during his limited amount of time with Boston, and the Bruins could reward a few youngsters with some extended looks in-game situations through the early stages of Phase 4.

"Ondrej hasn't joined us," Cassidy said. "We're traveling Sunday, so we're down to two practices here before we head to Toronto. So he's got some catching up to do. So, yes, if we feel that he's not caught up and Bjork is playing while or Jack for that matter. I'll say Bjork and Kuhly (Karson Kuhlman), because they were here a major part of the year. But if it happens to be Jack or someone else in that mix, that's the direction we'll go. I haven't seen Ondrej play in the playoffs. Sometimes those guys have that advantage, right? The veteran guys, they've been there and it is a different game, the stakes go up and you've got to experience I think, to truly appreciate it.

"But like I said, I haven't seen him play a lot of playoff hockey, so he would be a guy we're not 100% sure on either, on how he's going to perform at that level. We assume it'll be fine and better that fine, it'll be good. But now you're you're chasing it a bit, being this far behind. So we have to look at that. And we've said that all along.  Take out the injury factor, there could be people that, for testing purposes, fall behind and we have to rely on your depth. And we're experiencing a bit of that right now, even though we haven't played any games. So the potential certainly does exist."

Special-teams play highlight scrimmage: 

Friday marked what will likely be Boston's final intrasquad scrimmage at Warrior Ice Arena — with Team White earning a 4-1 victory over Team Black in a matchup headlined by physical play along the boards and special-teams clashes.

Zdeno Chara scored the lone goal during 5v5 play, scooping up a loose puck near the blue line and eventually wristing a puck past Jaroslav Halak near the slot. On the power play, Boston's top unit struck off the stick of Brad Marchand, who found the back of the net off of a nifty backhand shot on a drive toward the net. Once again, Krejci slotted in for Pastrnak on PP1, while Jake DeBrusk served as the group's net front option. Krejci closed out the scrimmage with a one-timer rocket during a 5-on-3 scenario.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1286751541131706368

Boston's second power-play unit — comprised of Charlie Coyle, Matt Grzelcyk, Charlie McAvoy, Anders Bjork and Jack Studnicka — also had a strong showing. Grzelcyk rifled a puck past Tuukka Rask from the blue line on an impressive sequence jumpstarted by an assertive rush from McAvoy through the neutral zone. McAvoy was robbed of a tally just a few minutes earlier, with Rask denying his one-time attempt with a slick pad save. Boston's PK did manage to land a few punches as well, with Anton Blidh burying a shorthanded goal off of a counter-rush down the ice.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1286758404015501316

Even without Pastrnak in tow, the Bruins' top power-play unit still had a number of gears turning as expected, with Krug and Marchand often operating the puck both along the blue line and near the half wall. With at least four more practices scheduled between now and Boston's exhibition matchup, the Bruins should have plenty of time to get the man advantage humming along once again.

"It felt good. I mean, for us, it was like putting our shoes back on again, and just getting used to where everyone is on the ice," Krug said Thursday. "It's no secret. We're a very unique power play and it doesn't matter who you plug and place in there, we have many different ways to beat you. So it was good to just get our feet wet and try to find guys again, those no-look passes, realizing you have support all over the ice and simply just outworking the penalty kill. That's a big part of our job, is recovering pucks. So it was exciting. It was fun. I think we were all looking forward to practicing power play for a long time now and just happy to be back out there with that group."