If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far during Jim Montgomery’s short time as Bruins bench boss, it’s that he likes to keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to recovery timelines.
Just a few weeks ago, Montgomery tempered expectations when it came to Brad Marchand’s potential return — noting on Oct. 26 that the B’s winger was still 7-10 days away from returning from offseason hip surgery.
The next day, Marchand was back in the lineup for Boston, and has promptly put up seven points in his first five games back.
Wednesday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena followed a similar script from Marchand’s final skate before getting the green light to return— with Charlie McAvoy now the latest key cog on the brink of a return from offseason surgery.
Much like Marchand, who was slotted back up on his usual spot on Boston’s top line on Oct. 26, McAvoy was back on Boston’s top pairing next to Hampus Lindholm on Wednesday — the closest that Boston has come to rolling out a super-pairing on defense that limited opponents to just three goals against in 131:22 of 5v5 ice time last season.
Much like Marchand, who earned the center-ice spot for the usual end-of-practice stretch on Oct. 26, McAvoy was given a similar honor on Wednesday.
And, much like that practice two weeks ago, Montgomery remained non-committal when it came to McAvoy’s expected return.
"McAvoy is checking a lot of boxes. He's getting close. He’ll be playing within the week, I think,” Montgomery said.
McAvoy himself also didn’t divulge much following practice beyond just the continued improvement that comes from his rehab back from an extensive shoulder procedure back in May.
“Doing well,” McAvoy said. “We’re just continuing to stack these boxes up. Feel good about where we are, and just going one day at a time. We feel really good about where we’re at.”
While we will likely need to wait until Thursday morning to see if McAvoy is officially cleared for his season debut, the B’s subsequent roster moves on Wednesday continued to offer up evidence that their top blueliner’s return is right around the corner.
If McAvoy is cleared for Thursday, the Bruins will need to shift some money around in order to accommodate his return (both on the ice and his cap hit against the team’s books).
And while placing Derek Forbort on LTIR stands as a logical fiscal route to take, the Bruins also placed Mike Reilly on waivers Wednesday for the purpose of assignment to Providence. Sending Reilly down to the AHL would shave about $1 million off of Boston’s books, but any team claiming Reilly between now and 2 p.m. on Thursday would allow the B’s to separate themselves from Reilly’s full deal.
Whether it be Thursday or potentially this weekend, one thing is for sure — McAvoy’s return is imminent.
And given the star defenseman’s seismic impact down both ends of the ice, the rest of the NHL has to be fretting about an 11-2-0 Bruins squad gaining arguably its best player back in short order.