B’s hope to practice today, play tomorrow
Need a clean round of tests this morning before re-taking the ice
The Bruins held steady on the fifth day of their COVID lockdown and, if the containment holds for another day, it appears that the team will practice on Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s scheduled game against the New York Islanders at the Garden.
The same five B’s — Sean Kuraly, David Pastrnak, David Krejci, Craig Smith and Jake DeBrusk — remained on the NHL’s protocol list. While coach Bruce Cassidy said on Tuesday he wasn’t aware of any players being symptomatic, he did say that he knows he won’t have Kuraly available.
The team has another round of testing Wednesday morning and, if all goes as well as hoped, practice will be held later in the day.
The timing of the shutdown was not great for the B’s. For the first time in a month, they had won consecutive games and were aiming for three in a row against the last-placed Sabres. Now, with the firstplaced Islanders coming to town and the identity of a good chunk of the B’s roster up in the air, that third straight win seems like a tall order.
Cassidy has done his best to roll with whatever was thrown at him, but admitted this latest interruption was a little frustrating.
“Yeah, this one, it felt like we had started to turn a corner. Even some injured guys were back skating. In the moment, you’re like ‘What now?’” said Cassidy. “At the end of the day, it’s one of those years where you have to grind through it. That’s the easiest way to say it. Then hopefully we can continue where we left off. Play the hand your dealt and control what you can control. That’s where we’re at now. Other teams have gone through it and hopefully its the last of it for us, fingers crossed, and we can get into a rhythm.”
While he’s already crossed Kuraly off the available list for Thursday, Wednesday’s testing should tell him if any of the four other players — all pretty important to the B’s cause, to say the least — will be at his disposal Thursday night.
There is some good news on the injury front, though it may not pay immediate dividends. Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon and Zach Senyshyn have all been skating (players not on the most recent road-trip did not have to quarantine) and, though Cassidy did not rule them out, it would seem doubtful that they’d be able to get into game action after just one practice. Lauzon (hand) has been out since Feb. 21, Carlo (head) since March 5 and Senyshyn (upper body) since Mach 11. Cassidy said Jarred Tinordi, who’d appeared to have suffered a head injury in Pittsburgh on March 16, also has a chance to play. Trent Frederic, who blocked a shot and left the B’s last game March 18, is a question mark. Kevan Miller, out since February 18 with a recurrence of knee issues, has been skating but will not be available Thursday. Cassidy said that John Moore (lower body) underwent surgery and will miss more time, but did not go into specifics.
Tuukka Rask, who last played on March 7 when it looked like he suffered a back injury, had been skating before the shutdown but has not been on the ice since last Thursday.
“If he makes it through practice, he’s a real possibility, if not for Thursday then Saturday,” said Cassidy.
No matter who’s ready for Thursday, you can expect to see some different bodies in and out of the lineup the rest of the way. Unless the May 8 end-ofseason date isn’t pushed out, the B’s will be playing 28 games in 45 days.
“I’ve never had a schedule like this, even in the minors … never this intense,” said Cassidy. “You’ve got to use your whole roster, including your taxi squad. We’ve been fortunate. We’ve always used two goaltenders, we’re ahead of the curve. We had to use a third (Dan Vladar), and he played well, so that’s good to know in the back of your mind. Maybe you have to limit minutes in games. That’s a tough one, because you’re trying to win hockey games and you know you’ve got, say, four games this week. Do you run these guys into the ground tonight to get the extra point or two and risk going forward? You’re always risking injury, but that can happen at any time. When you’re a coach and you’re into heavy minutes, you’re always thinking ‘do we have to time to recover?’ When’s the next game? We won’t have that luxury. The fourth line or depth players down in the lineup become more valuable. We’ve used 12 defenseman so we’ve seen what that looks like and we’ve defended well.”
The injuries to Lauzon and Miller have been major setbacks as far as evaluating what the team has on the back end as we near the April 12 trade deadline.
“At the start of the year with who we thought would play for us, I thought they handled it very well,” said Cassidy. “Now, is the first month of the season equivalent to the four rounds of playoffs? Of course not. But what we’ve lost is a bit of that growth opportunity for some of those guys like Lauzon.”
No season ever goes strictly to plan. But this season, perhaps more than any other, has had a mind of its own.