Brad Marchand was seen practicing with the top line on Wednesday afternoon. Another step in the right direction as he works toward his return from off-season double hip surgery.
When asked about how soon he could be seeing game action Marchand said “I’m pushing for every day. We’ll see” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery made sure to rule Marchand out for tomorrow’s matchup against the Detroit Red Wings but he did say that Marchand was ahead of schedule. Ahead. Of. Schedule. Montgomery doubled down on his comments saying that Marchand will make his return before Thanksgiving.
Brad Marchand is coming off an 80-point season scoring 32 goals and dishing out 48 assists. Marchand is a key piece to this Bruins core and is looking to add to the goal party Boston has been throwing in Brad’s absence.
The Bruins are currently 6-1-0 to start the season for the first time in 50 years. They are coming off a 3-1 win against the Dallas Stars with goals from David Pastrnak, Taylor Hall, and Patrice Bergeron. The Bruins have had some lackluster production on the powerplay but hopefully, by adding another scoring threat it will open up the ice for more goals to come in on the man advantage.
The Bruins will look to add him back to the top line with Jake DeBrusk and Patrice Bergeron. This move would shift the rest of the roster a little as current top-line winger Pavel Zacha would have to slot into the third line (do not touch the chemistry line!). Which would help spread out the scoring into the bottom six as well.
Someone would have to come off the roster in order for Marchand to come back to the team and the only 2 players that don’t require a stint on the waiver wire are Nick Foligno and Mike Reilly. My initial thought would be to send down Reilly to keep Foligno’s production, but that would leave another hole in the defense. Foligno might be the odd man out unless the Bruins are gonna take the chance and send someone else down.
I could also see Don Sweeny making a trade and sending out Craig Smith to get either a pick or a prospect. That would free up the room to move Marchand to the top line and maybe get some more developmental time for Jack Studnicka who has been sitting in the sky box waiting for his chance to show that his last performance against the Ducks was a fluke.
A decision needs to be made on Studnicka and you can’t make one unless you watch him. Get his value up and ship him out or put him on waivers and see if anyone takes him and risk losing him for nothing. The choice does not matter but one does indeed have to be made.