So far, so good for Miller
Defenseman must be cautious with knee in return to B’s lineup
As the days turned into weeks, Kevan Miller became something of a forgotten man to many Bruins’ observers. With his history of knee woes — a broken knee cap that would eventually require four surgeries — the number of doubters grew as what first was described as “maintenance” issues when the team chose to leave him home when it took the long trip to Lake Tahoe for the Feb. 21 outdoor game stretched into nearly two months on the shelf.
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
But Miller, speaking for the first time since leaving the lineup, said he always felt he’d make it back in. And with his rugged 22-minute performance in the B’s 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in his first game back on Tuesday, it was a reminder of what he can mean to this team when he’s healthy.
On Thursday morning, Miller reported that he came through Tuesday’s game well physically and that he was going back in the lineup on Thursday night in Washington, both good signs.
But as he discovered during his long absence, he’s got to be more careful the rest of the way.
”There were no real concerns that it wouldn’t get there, it’s just timing-wise and how long it took. Everything was going great earlier in the season, everything felt fine, getting the first 15 games under my belt. Everything went great. Then it started to slip,” said Miller. “We had those maintenance days where you use that to get back. Maybe you take one and it would pop back and be fine. But then it just slowly slipped a little and it was probably my own fault a little bit, not raising the red flag a little earlier and then it kind of got away from me. Unfortunately I had a little bit of an issue. I thought it would bounce back quick and it took a little longer than I anticipated
and hoped for but it feels pretty good now. But we have to make sure we manage it and manage the workload.”
What exactly that will look like is not quite clear yet, but he did stay off the ice when the rest of the team went out for their morning skate on Thursday at Capital One Arena. Back-to-back games — the first instance of which will be this weekend when they play in Philly on Saturday and then host the Capitals on Sunday — are yet to be determined.
“That’s something that with the trainers and coaching staff we’re going to hash out. I think we’ll have a pretty good plan,” said Miller. “I don’t know with back-toback how we’ll do it, maybe initially we’ll just see if we’re good. Then going forward it will be fluid. I’ll do my best to play in every game I can and
be ready to go. There’ll be days where we’ll take (off) and try to manage that a little bit, stay in a good spot and just be careful.”
He reported no problems in his first game back.
“It felt great just to be back out there with the group again,” said Miller. “I was able to get some good practices in before I jumped back in. Just to get the first three or four shifts under my belt and then (thinking), ‘OK, everything’s good,’ and then get back to playing was awesome.”
Swayman gets the call again
After Jeremy Swayman‘s excellent debut on Tuesday, coach Bruce Cassidy and goalie coach Bob Essensa decided to go right back with him on Thursday despite Daniel Vladar‘s strong
play as well. Tuukka Rask, who has played just one period of hockey since March 7 with an apparent back injury, is on the trip also but Cassidy said that was mostly to get his work in and take some live shots.
“A lot of it is where we see Tuukka. Is he going to get in on the weekend? If not, we’re talking about five games in a week for two young guys, so how do we chop those two up? And we decided to just keep it simple. Don’t look too far in the future,” said Cassidy. “Sway had a good game. Vladdy had a good game on Monday. Let’s go back with Sway. We hadn’t seen as much of him. Then we’ll sort out the weekend. Obviously, if Tuukka is not able to go, then we’ll split them (on the weekend).”
Jaroslav Halak, meanwhile, remained on the league’s COVID protocols list for the fourth consecutive day.
McAvoy back in Boston
Charlie McAvoy (upper body, day-to-day) returned to Boston but it didn’t sound like that means he’s out longer term.
“He’s feeling better, back in Boston, so not sure what his timeline would be for us. Saturday, now that he’s back, that’s probably out of the question, but I guess we’ll get the updates from the trainers and we’ll be looking
at Sunday,” said Cassidy.
Kuraly was asymptomatic
Though he popped enough positive COVID tests to remain on the league’s protocols list for two weeks, Sean Kuraly said that he was asymptomatic for his two weeks on the COVID list.
“I was actually fine, which is a positive. I didn’t really have any symptoms, so I guess that’s the silver lining through it all. I got through it pretty easily, which was nice,” said Kuraly.
While it’s been an up-anddown year for Kuraly — he’d been scratched a couple of times before going on the list — one area of improvement has been in the faceoff circle. His 59.6% mark going into Thursday’s game has been the best of his career.
“Sometimes you try to find ways to add to the team and that’s been one area where I’ve been given an opportunity and I think my job is just to go out there and win some faceoffs,” he said. “Sometimes they bounce your way and sometimes they don’t. But I’ve just been trying to bear down. That’s all I can really say. You’re always trying to bear down but sometimes when they’re not going in the net and the offense isn’t coming, you’re just trying to find ways to keep yourself in the game and make sure you’re helping this team.”