Boston Bruins: Winter Classic Loss Brings Roster Moves

The Boston Bruins went back to the drawing board (of sorts) after being embarrassingly routed by the Montreal Canadiens at the Winter Classic yesterday. This marks the Bruins fourth loss in the last five games, and changes were certainly needed as the B’s try to right the ship.

Some of these changes made sense, and others seemed to correct previous errors. The Bruins made several changes to the roster, and hopefully they’ll make a better team.

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Bruins forward Alexander Khokhlachev was send back to Providence. For all his talk about wanting to become part of the Bruins roster, the young Russian center just hasn’t shown the big club that he has what it takes to be a full-time player in Boston.  Khokhlachev has played nine games in Boston, and still has yet to put a point. He’s a -4, and he’s neither fast or feisty enough to play at the NHL level.

It’s probably in the best interest of the Bruins to try some sort of trade before Khokhlachev heads back to Russia to try his luck with the KHL.

Seth Griffith was also sent down to Providence. Griffith seemed a little lost on the ice (then again, so did most of the Bruins) against the Habs, registering a -3 with a single hit in over ten minutes of ice time. I thought it a little odd that they were going to give Griffith top-six time.

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To be fair to the Bruins, they didn’t have much of a choice. The Bruins were without Jonas Kemppainen and David Krejci due to injury. Brad Marchand got himself suspended just before the Winter Classic, and the B’s loaned out David Pastrnak to the Czech national team. So, they hoped their best AHL player could make a big splash in a big game.

The Bruins recalled Colin Miller back to Boston.

With the Bruins needing extra forwards, they decided to send (the wrong) Miller down to Providence.  His return is a win-win for everyone. Colin Miller can at least hold his head high knowing he was not tainted by the debacle at Gillette Stadium. Miller is a more conservative defensemen who (in my opinion) a more reliable defensemen then his more pugilistic counterpart.

David Pastrnak is coming back to Boston.

The Czech Republic team got taken out by Team USA (that has three Bruins prospects on it), and with that, Pasta is coming back to Boston to get cooked a little more. It appears that Pastrnak had some kind of minor injury to his right hand, possibly a broken finger.

.@CrzyCanucklehed It's on his right hand. #Pastrnak #injury pic.twitter.com/FhgO29kq3I

— Pavlína Kadlecová (@paja_k) January 2, 2016

So, why in God’s name did the B’s let Pastrnak go to the World Juniors? The conditioning stint in the AHL would have been a better test of his skills then playing with the kids. (On an odd note, the Czech National Team wasn’t the only team eliminated, Team Canada shocked a lot of people (and certainly themselves) by not getting into the semi-finals this year.

Now the Bruins will need to get ready to take on the best team in the East, the Washington Capitals, on Tuesday. Hopefully the Bruins will use the loss in the Winter Classic to propel them forward.