Boston Bruins Place Zac Rinaldo On Injured Reserve
Boston Bruins Place Zac Rinaldo On Injured Reserve With Upper Body Injury
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins have placed left winger Zac Rinaldo on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury. The 25 year old forward came to the Bruins in an off-season trade that was heavily criticized by many, especially considering the fact that the cost of bringing him to Boston was a third round draft pick. Known for his questionable judgement and reputation of crossing the line multiple times in his career, Rinaldo was brought into Boston to add some rough-and-tough play to a team that had let that style of play disappear over the last two seasons. While Rinaldo did bring a level of physicality to the Bruins, he’s played within the rules for the most part of his tenure with Boston, and he’s even provided speed and generated some offense on the Bruins fourth line.
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Zac Rinaldo recently found some solid chemistry alongside Maxime Talbot and Landon Ferraro on the Bruins fourth line, and that chemistry has allowed Bruins head coach Claude Julien to roll out all of his lines with confidence. The Bruins have always operated with the mindset of all four lines contributing evenly in different ways, and this new-look fourth line has provided the Bruins with a nice combination of speed, hitting, and some offensive-flare. Both Maxime Talbot and Landon Ferraro are also both major contributors on the Bruins penalty-kill which has been red hot since the Bruins November 17th game against the San Jose Sharks. Zac Rinaldo fought against Matt Hendricks of the Edmonton Oilers on Monday which could be where he suffered his injury, although he did play the rest of the game and finished with five hits on the night. The exact cause of Rinaldo’s injury is unknown at this time.
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With Zac Rinaldo set to miss at least one week of action, it is likely that Tyler Randell will rejoin the Bruins lineup. Zac Rinaldo has one goal and one assist to go along with 53 penalty minutes in 26 games in comparison to Tyler Randell‘s four goals, zero assists, and 35 penalty minutes in 15 games this season. Randell has been a very solid player on the Bruins fourth line when given the opportunity, and he has shown that he has a willingness to contribute offensively, as well as physically. The Bruins fourth line should be fine with Randell taking over in place of Rinaldo, as both players have done everything asked of them and more in each game they’ve played in.
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