Bruins Notebook: His career once at a crossroads, Kevan Miller ready to do his part this postseason; Kase joins skilled 4th line

During each of Boston's previous two trips to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Kevan Miller had been on the outside looking in as the rest of his teammates competed and fought for a chance to hoist the greatest trophy in sports — with a pair of knee injuries and a slew of subsequent surgeries and setbacks robbing him of a chance to get back on the ice for more than a year.

But more than two years after Miller's pro career was put in jeopardy after his fateful collision into the boards at Minnesota's Xcel Energy Center, Miller — at long last — finds himself back in Boston's starting lineup and ready to experience his first taste of playoff hockey since May 6, 2018.

"I think the perspective for me has changed," Miller said of his road back from a pair of fractured kneecaps and subsequent surgeries. "How I view the game, how I put on my skates and pulling the jersey over everyday. So those are things that has definitely changed for me. And I'm just grateful to be playing and the most fun is playoff hockey. And I miss that the most. That's when the bonds get really tight with your teammates. ... That's kind of why I play. So I'm super excited for that."

While Miller serves more as a third-pairing, physical presence on Boston's D corps, just the fact that Miller has managed to emerge from the no-man's land he once found himself in and return to the ice as regular cog for the B's stands as an achievement in and of itself — and is why Miller, unsurprisingly, was named as the Bruins' 2021 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nominee. The Masterton Trophy is given to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

While a setback with said knee has only limited him to 27 games this season, Miller entered the 2021 campaign with little in terms of restrictions, with his season debut back on Jan. 14  marking 651 days between NHL games for the veteran after missing the entire 2019-20 campaign due to complications in his lengthy rehab process back from both a horizontal and vertical fracture to the same kneecap.

But since returning back in April, Miller has logged 12 games down the stretch for Boston — adhering to a new schedule in which the blueliner manages his knee by not playing on the second leg of back-to-back games and largely skipping practices. While that agreement has worked out over the last month, Miller did note that he expects those restrictions to be loosened a bit once the postseason gets underway.

"I fully intend, if there's a back-to-back, to be playing," Miller said. "We came to the kind of agreement that 'Hey, what we're doing now is probably best for load management.' It's still healing, to be honest. So it just takes some time. And we had a little setback there. But I think it's been successful so far, I feel pretty good. Obviously you want to get your touches. So that's what sucks. I enjoy practicing. I enjoy pregame skate, you miss on a little bit of that with the team. But other than that, just doing the games and playing has been been good. I think we'll try to maintain that as much as we can. And then if there's a back to back or something like that, then it's part of the gig and I'll be playing."

At this point, Miller is hoping to put his injury woes behind him and focus on what he can to do help his team moving forward. While Miller is averaging 19:12 TOI this season, the second highest mark of his career (19:28 average TOI in 2017-18), the rugged defenseman knows that he very well could have been out of the game at this point in his career had he opted to avoid those arduous months of grueling rehab.

It was far from an easy road back, but Miller found plenty of solace during those dark days thanks to his family and his teammates — who are thrilled to have him back in the fold for another shot at the Cup.

"I can't say enough about the the room here, we've had a very tight group," Miller said. "And it just seems to get better every year. It's amazing. The leadership group, the guys who have been here a long time. I've leaned on those guys a lot. And some of the guys who weren't here in past — Zee and Kruger and guys that I basically came into the league playing with. The guys now that have supported me, that have seen me come from from the depths to where I am now. They're constantly checking in on me, and I've had good conversations and those guys that have been through things ... not just like mine, but other issues in the past, you lean on those guys. I'm thankful for that."

Ondrej Kase 'ready 100%' for return to game action

After missing the last 52 games of the regular season due to a suspected concussion, Ondrej Kase is looking to make the most of what has largely been a lost season for the 25-year-old winger — with the Czech product noting on Monday that he feels ready to contribute come the postseason.

"I'm ready, I'm ready 100%," Kase said. "I skated almost one and a half months, maybe two months. So I think my conditioning and everything will be pretty good. So I hope I can help the team and I can wait."

While Kase's recovery was plagued at times by starts and stops, he believes he's fully rounded the corner in what has stood as the latest and a growing number of concussions in his NHL career. In a perfect situation, Boston would ideally want to gradually ease Kase back into the lineup, but that isn't afforded to the Bruins at this point with just two games remaining on the regular-season docket.

Even though he'll need to shake off some rust, Kase's wheels and playmaking potential does offer plenty of intrigue, especially further down in the B's lineup. With Bruce Cassidy hinting on Monday that a heavier third line of Nick Ritchie, Sean Kuraly and Charlie Coyle could be reunited once Coyle is cleared to play again, Boston's fourth line suddenly has plenty of scoring potential now that both Kase and Jake DeBrusk — two-thirds of Boston's second line up in the Toronto bubble — are skating with Curtis Lazar.

Slotting Kase next to some talented forwards in DeBrusk/Lazar could suddenly give Boston an intriguing fourth line that could really do some damage against easier matchups, but at this juncture, the priority remains just getting Kase back up to speed.

"He needs to go and play and shake the rust off as quickly as possible if we have any chance of using him next week or this weekend, whenever we start," Cassidy said. "So that's the first and only message: Keep your shift short. Things are going to be happening fast around you, so play with your head up and try not to overdo it. Just get back into the flow of playing hockey with bodies and people flying around you. So you don't get that in practice, the same as you do in a game. So that's the only message to him."

No decision yet on Rask's backup for postseason

While the writing would seem on the wall based on the plan in net for these next two games (Tuukka Rask on Monday / Jeremy Swayman on Tuesday) that the University of Maine product will enter the postseason as Rask's backup, Cassidy is not ready to fully comment on how the B's goaltending depth chart will sort itself out once the book is closed on the 2021 regular season.

"We have an idea internally," Cassidy said. "Swayman's played a lot more than Jaro recently, that matters. His numbers are excellent. Weighing that against the experience factor matters, but to me it's who gives us the best chance to win if Tuukka's not in the net. That's what we're gonna go with. We don't have to make that decision until later this week. But that will be the determining factor."