The Boston Bruins have trimmed down their roster ahead of their opening night clash with the Dallas Stars and Anders Bjork is inexplicably missing.
Here’s a guy that has literally put his blood, sweat and tears into making the Boston Bruins roster and really looked the part in the pre-season. Of the guys sent back down to Providence, I think Anders Bjork possibly was the most surprising.
A tally of two assists in four games and seven shots might not scream game-changer, but the constant peskiness on the fore-check, forcing turnovers from the opposition suggested he was at least a chance of making the Boston Bruins opening night roster, potentially in a third or fourth-line role.
However, the decision has been made to sent him back for more time with the Providence Bruins as he hasn’t, to paraphrase Bruce Cassidy, managed to score consistently enough at the professional level and that was what he was drafted as; a scoring winger.
This could straight up be the management sticking to their guns on the guy and giving him a little ‘tough love’ so he can come back and hopefully give them what they want from him.
Or it could actually be quite a foolish move to not see that maybe his professional game is an fore-checking bottom-six guy, not a second-line scoring type.
Whether they’re right or wrong, I guess we’ll find out in due course, but here are three really strong reasons that Anders Bjork deserved a spot on the roster from the day one and not as an injury call-up later on.