Rested and ready to go
BRANDON, Fla. — There’s still plenty of need for improvement by the Bruins, but they have won their last two games after a three-game losing slide and will take the ice tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a winning record.
So yesterday was a low-key practice day for the Bruins at the Lightning’s suburban practice rink, a skate skipped by goalie Tuukka Rask, forwards Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Brad Marchand, and defensemen Zdeno Chara and John-Michael Liles.
Coach Claude Julien said all were fine to play tonight in the finale of a four-game road stretch.
The lead item on a slow news day: Forward David Backes resumed skating in Boston, fully recovered apparently from the “minor” surgical procedure he had last Monday. A day after the elbow surgery, Julien termed Backes, “day-to-day,” but he’ll end up missing at least five games. It seems likely Backes will return to the lineup when the B’s host the New York Rangers on Saturday at the Garden.
The day’s other headline: Rookie Danton Heinen’s first stint in the NHL came to an end, as the winger was assigned to Providence of the AHL. The 21-year-old made the team out of training camp with expectations that he’d be both a creative playmaker and a threat to score some goals, but he went scoreless with a minus-2 in seven games.
“We saw some spurts of that (creativity) with our team,” Julien said. “But in his case, he probably needs to go down and get better, get more confident and get stronger. But we’re certainly not unhappy with him. I thought he had a great camp. He’s a smart player with and without the puck. I think he’s going to be a great player of the future, whether that’s shortly or a little later.”
Pastrnak back
Winger David Pastrnak will return to the lineup tonight after serving the two-game suspension he was assessed by the NHL for his open-ice hit on Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi last week.
“I’m happy to be back . . . and free,” said Pastrnak, sounding like a guy getting sprung from jail. “I have to be better. I’m just going to play the same way. Just play the right way and help the team. Obviously, I want to get a little physical, just play the same way — hard and the right way on the puck. I won’t do it again, hopefully. I don’t want to get suspended. But it’s hockey, and I made a decision and I can’t change it in a quick second.”
Perhaps the return of Pastrnak, and then Backes, will help a power play that hit the bottom of the league rankings, at 6.3 percent, with an 0-for-4 in Tuesday’s 2-1 win against the Florida Panthers.
McQuaid on hot seat
The game in Sunrise, Fla., had a wild finish.
Just over a minute after the Panthers scored to cut the B’s lead to one goal with 4:35 left to play, defenseman Torey Krug took a hard hit and was down for a moment. Krug’s partner, Adam McQuaid, reacted by engaging Shane Harper in a fight.
McQuaid ended up getting an extra instigator minor, giving Florida its seventh power play of the game. The Panthers pulled the goalie to make it a 6-on-4 for the full power play. Those were two long minutes for McQuaid, the most relieved guy in the arena when the Bruins hung on for the win.
“Obviously at that point of the game, with that score, you don’t want to be taking the extra penalty and going a man down,” McQuaid said yesterday.
“I didn’t totally see 100 percent what happened. I just saw guys reacting and I saw Kruger down. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but we make quick decisions. My heart was definitely racing (during the penalty kill).”