Breathe easy, Bruins fans.
Despite only skating in one of Boston’s 13 skates during Phase 3 workouts at Warrior Ice Arena, David Pastrnak was cleared to fly up to Toronto on the team charter and is expected to practice Monday afternoon with the rest of the club.
“He looks great. Probably needs a haircut,” Bruce Cassidy said of his initial impressions of Pastrnak, who was last spotted at the B’s team facility in Brighton back on July 15.
https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1287786731832520704
While both Pastrnak and Nick Ritchie (absent the final three Phase 3 workouts) traveled with the rest of their teammates on Sunday, Cassidy added that winger Ondrej Kase was not on the charter, but “will meet us later” up in the bubble.
While the Bruins will return to the ice for practice Monday up in Toronto, Cassidy expects it to be a rather light session, with the club opting to hold off on scrimmages and allowing the players to get their feet back under them up in their new surroundings.
Still, Pastrnak is expected to be a full participant for
the on-ice work — a major step forward after being stuck in quarantine for over a week due to coming in contact with an individual that tested positive for COVID-19. Ritchie, however, will not skate with the rest of the club on Monday
“I think the bigger guys, typically, when you're off, just take a little longer to catch up,” Cassidy said of Ritchie on Saturday. “It just seems to be the way your body works — to sort of get everything going, the motor running. So Nick would fall into that category."
Given that the Bruins only have three practices lined up before meeting the Blue Jackets for an exhibition matchup on Thursday, Pastrnak doesn’t have plenty of time to shake off the rust and get back up to speed before games begin in earnest.
Still, given both Pastrnak’s age and chemistry with his regular linemates in Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, Cassidy doesn’t believe it’s going to take his top scorer that much time to revert back to his usual, dynamic self.
“I expect him to be ready to go, excited to be back with his teammates,” Cassidy said. “You know Pasta, he loves the game. He loves being around his teammates. He's got lots of personality. Very gregarious young guy. So good to have him back.
“I expect he'll pick up fairly quickly. But until we see him and get them out there in the drills, that's tough to tell. But as I said with all our group, I thought our conditioning, I did not believe would be an issue. I think our guys were excellent at that through the whole pause. I think they worked on it, I can tell that from the first and second day of practice, I don't think David would be any different in that regard."
Chara held off ice:
Along with Ritchie and Kase, Zdeno Chara was also held off the ice for Boston's first practice up in Toronto, with the club announcing that the absence of its captain was due to a delay in testing results.
https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1287829337518092289
This seems to be more precautionary than anything, as it seems like delayed testing and other minor complications have primarily been what has led to absences for multiple teams throughout Phase 3. Chara participated in a Zoom call with media on Monday afternoon and passed all required protocols before heading up with the team to Canada on Sunday.
Here are the lines that Cassidy rolled with up in Toronto on Monday:
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Krejci – Studnicka
Kuraly – Coyle – Bjork/Kuhlman
Nordstrom – Lindholm – Wagner
Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Moore – Lauzon
Vaakanainen – Clifton
Rask
Halak