Boston Bruins: 3 reasons Anders Bjork deserved to make the roster

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.

Anders Bjork has persevered

Here’s an individual that has suffered some really significant injuries in his young career, and yet Anders Bjork dusts himself off each time and re-commits wholly to his goal of making the NHL full-time with the Boston Bruins.

In January 2018, Anders Bjork injured his shoulder in the Boston Bruins’ clash with the Anaheim Ducks; that injury would take six months to heal after surgical repair work. This occurred having missed numerous games the season prior due to another shoulder injury.

Now, you could argue that he doesn’t make the team because he’s shown himself to be prone to shoulder injuries, but fact is he showed up at the Prospects Challenge and now in pre-season for the Boston Bruins and hasn’t shown an inkling of the injuries lingering.

In fact, Boston Bruins head coach, Bruce Cassidy is quoted as saying, “he had a good training camp, good preseason, he’s healthy, bigger, stronger.”

For the coach to see that he’s not only stronger but also healthier suggests that surely this isn’t an issue and isn’t the reason for missing the cut.

If you’re Anders Bjork, you’ve got to see the demotion to the American Hockey League as another test of that perseverance. If he can jump this hurdle, the NHL is right there.

Given that in two seasons, he’s managed just 50 NHL games and 22 AHL games; it’s safe to say if he can persevere and manage a full 82 game schedule, the Boston Bruins are going to come calling next year, if not before.

It’s not like they go through whole seasons without needing injury call-ups after all!

Promoting him would send a clear message to those in Providence

Maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world for Anders Bjrok to be sent back down to Providence to further focus on the deficiencies in his game and really truly make an impact when he eventually makes it to the Boston Bruins line-up.

However, promoting him to the NHL would’ve sent a very clear message to those prospects that are really somewhat less prospect-like now and more on the path towards being lifelong minor-league or KHL guys; think Peter Cehlarik for one.

The message would’ve been clear; Anders Bjork has put in all the effort in the world towards rehabilitating himself after devastating injuries, he’s taken his setbacks and has used them as fuel to fire himself into NHL contention.

When it really counted too, in training camp and in pre-season, where you must do all you can to impress, he showed up.

In that regard, promotiong him to the Boston Bruins opening night roster would’ve been not quite a master stroke, but a very sensible and calculated decision to hopefully push your fringe guys to be that much better when the season gets underway in Providence.

You’d have to imagine, after this pre-season and should he continue his fine form, that Anders Bjork will be one of the first to get the call-up if a winger goes down injured. In that regard, at least we should see Bjork in the NHL.

Whether it should’ve been happening against Dallas or not, we’re not here to decide. We can look at it and say he earned the chance, but equally we should look at the decision that has been made and be cool with it.

Bjork is clearly ready for the big-time, but just maybe not in the role the Boston Bruins once envisioned.