For Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, there has been a lot of mixing and matching with his lines six games into the season.
Some of the mixing and matching is due to trying to find offense, which struggled in the first three games on the road against the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. Since returning to the friendly confines of the TD Garden, the offense has been producing more.
Another part of the mixing and matching lines is due to injuries. The Bruins injured list seems to grow a little after each game. With the second of two games against the Pittsburgh Penguins on tap for tonight, just how much longer can the Bruins survive with what seems like a team that is not having much luck with injuries early in the season?
Bruins near the top of the standings despite injuries.
The Bruins sit at 4-1-1 and are tied for second place in the newly realigned East Division standings for the 2021 season. Washington leads the way with 11 points, but the Black and Gold are tied for second place with Philadelphia Flyers and Penguins with nine points each.
Before the season began, Boston knew that David Pastrnak would be out as he recovers from hip surgery in September. His return could be in the very near future and that would be a much-added addition for the Bruins, getting their leading goal scorer from last season in the lineup.
Ondrej Kase was injured in the second game against the Devils and has been out since. Matt Grzelcyk was injured in the third game against the Islanders, returned two nights later against the Flyers before another injury sidelined him for the last two games.
Jake DeBrusk was injured in the first period of Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Pens and will miss tonight’s rematch with a lower-body injury. To add insult to injury, despite already having tonight off after playing in Tuesday’s victory, goalie Tuukka Rask will not dress after missing practice Wednesday after being given the day off by Cassidy.
Is there an injury there? Who knows. Rask did come up not looking right following the first Pittsburgh goal the other night and then gave up a second goal late in the third period that he usually stops. He did remain in the game, but clearly was not feeling right.
With the Bruins missing some key members of their team and the fact that they are tied for second place in the division with the scoring issues that had at the beginning of the season is a little surprising. Can the Bruins keep up collecting wins with a roster that seems to be missing pieces and stay near the top of the standings? We will see beginning tonight.