Bruins Practice Report: Kevan Miller, Matt Bartkowski Return; Chris Kelly Absent

BOSTON — The Bruins returned to practice Saturday afternoon looking for ways to generate more scoring chances against a stingy Detroit Red Wings defense. The Red Wings kept the B’s scoreless Friday night by clogging the middle of the ice and dominating puck possession.

The shutout loss was Boston’s first in the playoffs since Game 1 of the 2011 first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens.

Game 2 of the series is Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at TD Garden. The Bruins have not been down 0-2 in a series since the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

Here are the important news and notes from Saturday’s Bruins practice.

–Forward Daniel Paille and defensemen Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg skated together with Bruins strength and conditioning coach John Whitesides before the rest of the team practiced at noon. They participated in a few drills that worked on their skating, passing and shooting.

–Defensemen Kevan Miller and Matt Bartkowski returned to practice. It was the first time that Bartkowski had skated all week. Miller practiced Thursday but did not play in Game 1. Both D-men took part in drills as normal.

Julien said that he doesn’t know if Miller or Bartkowski will play in Game 2.

–Justin Florek wore the grey jersey on the third line with Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson again. The 23-year-old winger replaced Chris Kelly in Game 1, and even got some work on the penalty kill. Kelly didn’t practice on Saturday.

–Milan Lucic said he got caught up in the “heat of the moment’ when he speared Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser in Game 1. The Bruins winger said he doesn’t have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, but he does have to call into the league office.

“I believe in playing within the rules, and for me, I definitely won’t be going down that road again,” Lucic said when asked about the incident. “It’s not going to be a habit of mine.”

Lucic was fined $5,000 for the spear, the NHL announced Saturday afternoon.

–Boston played a strong defensive game Friday night. The B’s gave up just 24 shots, one goal and were a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Tuukka Rask stood tall in net and made 23 saves, including a highlight-reel stop with his right pad on a Darren Helm shot in the third period.

“We’ve been in a lots of tight games this year,” Jarome Iginla said after Saturday’s practice. “Defensively we were very good.”

–In Game 1, the Bruins offense was shut out for the first time since the third game of the regular season. Loui Eriksson wants his team to create more traffic in front of the net.

“I just think we need to stake a little more,” Eriksson said. “Get a little more traffic in front and get more shots to the net.”

Red Wing goalie Jimmy Howard saw too many of the Bruins’ shots from the point Friday night, and the lack of traffic in front of his net made it easy for him to make saves and corral rebounds. The B’s practiced tip-ins and deflections as part of several drills during Saturday’s practice.

–The Bruins first line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla was dominated from a possession standpoint by the Red Wings second line of Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar in Game 1. A major reason why can be found in the distinct corsi-for percentage (puck-possession stat) advantage that this Detroit trio had against Boston’s top group.