Grzelcyk, Forbort paired together
Clifton sits out Edmonton game
The Bruins defensive rotation continued to turn on Thursday and the roulette wheel produced a new pairing for the matchup against the Edmonton Oilers.
Connor Clifton came out of the lineup and Matt Grzelcyk took his spot on the third pairing with Derek Forbort. The duo had one practice under their belt.
“I’ve never played with him, but I know his game, obviously, over the last year and half from watching him,” said Grzelcyk after an optional morning skate on Thursday. “It’s a little bit tougher just seeing the ice on your off side but I’ve had a few games there in the past so I just have to rely on those past experiences. I know he’s an unbelievable defender and he’s really good at closing plays off the rush, so when he’s on his game, I have to be ready to skate over and defend the middle if we’re going to squash and slide. We’ve only had one practice so we’ll see how it works.”
Grzelcyk is not completely inexperienced at playing the right side, but it does present its challenges.
“I’ve played it before so I know what can get you in trouble,” said Grzelcyk. “Sometimes the neutral zone can be tough when you’re on your off side. You feel if you get a D-to-D pass, it’s tough to go right up. But I have had some experience playing there before, so you get used to it.”
What the six-pack of defensemen will be for game one of the playoffs has yet to be determined, though one could surmise that Grzelcyk could be the oddman out along with Jakub Zboril simply by virtue of the fact that there are five
left shots for three spots. It’s pretty clear that Hampus Lindholm and Dmitry Orlov won’t be coming out of the lineup, while Forbort leads the B’s in ice time for their league-leading penalty kill (3:08 per game).
But Grzelcyk knows as well as anyone how difficult it is for all the defensemen to stay healthy once the playoffs start. They’ve stayed remarkably healthy this season after Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy returned from offseason surgery. Brandon Carlo missed four games with a concussion early in the season and Forbort missed 11 games with a broken finger. But relatively speaking, they’ve been fortunate.
Grzelcyk knows that if the B’s want to reach their
goal of playing another two months once the regular season ends, they’ll need all their D-men at some point.
“It’s a little unlikely that we’ve kind of remained healthy for pretty much the whole year,” said Grzelcyk. “When you come out of the lineup, you want to make sure you take care of your body and you’re using that time properly and you’re getting the rest that you need, making sure that when you come back in you’ve got a little more jump. I think we all realize the reality of the situation. We have a ton of good players and someone’s going to come out of the lineup eventually. You just have to make sure that when you’re in, you make
the most of it.”
Orlov on point
Orlov was already in line for a pretty good payday, but the UFA-to-be is in a very good position to improve his stock with the opportunity of quarterbacking the top power play unit that has been sagging lately. But that was not foremost in his mind when as he prepared to make his debut on the top unit with David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk.
“I try not to overthink it too much,” said Orlov. “I’m just going game by game and focusing on what I can do to be the best up there and not make a mistake, just play hard and bring what I know I can bring
in my best game. It’s been my focus and it’s what I’ll do till the end. I think it’s helpful mentally to me,” he said.
While he said his focus will be on to move the puck to his teammates, but he’s shown that, with his onetimer goal while playing on the second unit with Lindholm last week against Buffalo, he’s got a heck of a shot. Coach Jim Montgomery not only wants him to use it, but it’s imperative.
“I think he needs to establish his own shot to be able to open up the elbows,” said Montgomery.
Loading up
The B’s and Oilers have added significant pieces since they played last week. The B’s picked up Tyler Bertuzzi
(Orlov and Garnet Hathaway were already in the fold), but not only did Edmonton obtain top-four defenseman Mattias Ekholm and big fourth-line center Nick Bjugstad at the trade deadline, skilled and rugged winger Evander Kane was expected back in the lineup. He’d been out since Feb. 17 with an upper body injury.
“I think they helped themselves a lot,” said Montgomery. “Ekholm is one of the elite defensemen in the league offensively, underrated. Defensively, everybody knows how good he is so obviously they got better. Kane coming back, he wasn’t there last time, obviously makes them even deeper up front, which is already pretty deep.”