There were a few concerns about the state of the team when the Boston Bruins had several players off the ice on Monday. It certainly led to a few raised eyebrows when they saw Jordan Caron practicing on the top line and David Pastrnak on the third. Thankfully, Coach Claude Julien was right when he told the media that all the players were just taking a maintenance day.
The Boston Bruins had their entire roster ready to go this morning at Ristuccia Arena. The team went through practice and they look like they’re ready for tomorrow night’s tilt against the New York Rangers. The last time these two teams met, Tuukka Rask stopped all thirty shots on net to lead the Bruins to a commanding 3-0 win at the TD Garden.
Loui Eriksson was the biggest question mark among Monday’s missing players. Eriksson’s first year in Boston was marred by two concussions, severely limiting his playing time and production. It seemed that Eriksson might have sustained another serious injury when he got knocked into the boards by Los Angeles Kings defenseman Robyn Regehr last Saturday. (The Bruins beat the Kings 3-1.) Thankfully, Eriksson suffered only a stiff neck from the collision.
This was today’s line up for forward lines, defensive pairs, and goaltenders.
Caron-Krejci-Smith
Marchand-Bergeron-Eriksson
Kelly-Soderberg-Pastrnak
Paille-Campbell-Cunningham
Chara-Hamilton
Seidenberg-McQuaid
Krug-Miller
Bartkowski
Rask
Subban
Claude Julien has once again made a few moves to the lines. Reilly Smith is now on the top right wing, and Loui Eriksson has been promoted to work with Patrice Bergeron. David Pastrnak is again on the third line with Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg. The only line that remains intact is the current incarnation of the Merlot Men.
Milan Lucic as listed as ‘probable’ for tomorrow night’s game. Coach Claude Julien has stated that Lucic could be heading out to New York tomorrow to join the team.
The Bruins at present see no need to make any moves with the current defensive pairs.
The interesting thing that should be taken out of this is that Malcolm Subban is still the back up goaltender for Boston. Niklas Svedberg‘s AHL conditioning run was expected to run for the weekend, but it appears that run has been extended. Perhaps the Bruins will be giving Subban his first NHL regular season start soon. If that’s not the case, then the brunt of the workload will be on Tuukka Rask as the Bruins storm into February.
The Black and Gold made a strong showing during the month of January. Their nineteen point month got them back on track and into a playoff slot. They now have a comfortable, but modest nine point lead over their next closest contender for a wild card slot, the Florida Panthers