Boston Bruins gameday notes: DeBrusk returns, IR trip for Spooner

Announcements regarding who’s in and out of the lineup as the Boston Bruins get set to take the Arizona Coyotes at the TD Garden Thursday Night.

As the Boston Bruins wrapped up their morning skate at the  Warrior Ice Arena this morning, some announcements were made regarding the team’s lineup for tonight’s game against the Arizona Coyotes.

Torey Krug will be a full go tonight after sitting out Wednesday’s practice for maintenance day. He will be in his normal spot on the team’s second defensive pairing next to Brandon Carlo. He was  never in real danger of missing the contest.

Jake DeBrusk (upper body) was activated from the IR as was expected and will return tonight after missing the past three games. He was skating on  the second line with David Krejci and Anders Bjork. Prior to his injury, the rookie was heating up after responding to his benching on November 11th against the Maple Leafs better than anyone could have imagined with seven points (3-4-7) in the six games that followed.

With DeBrusk back in the mix a roster move will have to be made, and even though it hasn’t been officially announced by the club, all signs are pointing towards Ryan Spooner (lower body) being placed on IR. So it looks like Bruins fans will have to wait even longer to see the team that was put together by Don Sweeney & Co at full strength.

Early Thursday afternoon when Bruce Cassidy spoke on Spooner and the return of DeBrusk to the lineup he said:

"“Donny and I are going to sort through that this afternoon, I don’t know the timeline it has to be in. Obviously Spooner didn’t skate today so we have to look where is he going in terms of his progress for Saturday. That’s the first thing we’ll discuss and go from there.”That’s a big part of the conversation. How’s he progressing…this may or may not linger. We have to go through those options. He’s the first player that we’ll look at because he wasn’t here.”"

Spooner hasn’t skated since Monday night’s game in Nashville. Knowing his history with this groin issue and how it has sidelined him for almost two thirds of the season thus far I wouldn’t be surprised to see another trip to the IR for the 25 year old.

Old Friends Meet Again

The thing about tonight’s game that I am most excited to see is if Charlie McAvoy will be matched up against his former Boston University teammate Clayton Keller, who is on the Coyotes second line. The rookie winger leads Arizona in goals (11) and points (23) which puts him third in rookie scoring behind the Islanders’ Matthew Barzal (who will be at the TD Garden Saturday night when the Islanders come to town) and the Canucks’ Brock Boeser with 26 and 25 points respectively.

Keller and McAvoy were both standouts during their time on Comm Ave for the Terriers.Keller paced the team in scoring as a freshman last season with 45 points (21-24-45) and McAvoy lead the team’s defensemen with 26 points (5-21-26). The duo lead BU to the Regional Finals aka the “Elite Eight” of the National tournament where they fell to eventual National Runner-Up Minnesota-Duluth.

Next: Bruins trade target: Wayne Simmonds

Projected Lines/D-Pairs

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Anders Bjork
Danton Heinen – Riley Nash – David Backes
Tim Schaller – Sean Kuraly – Noel Acciari

Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin