It took a few days, but the Boston Bruins are back to full strength as the NHL nears a restart.
David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase were the final B’s to trickle in for the team’s restart camp, but both hit the ice at Warrior Ice Arena on Wednesday.
Now that Bruce Cassidy has his full roster intact and a few days of practice under the team’s belt, here’s our latest Bruins roster projection.
First line
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Not broke, don’t fix it.
Second line
Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Ondrej Kase
Cassidy is hoping “absence makes the heart grow fonder” when it comes to Krejci and DeBrusk. If those two can get hot for a couple of months, the Bruins are going to go on a deep run. The Bruins probably would love to get Kase back on the ice with the main group as soon as possible. These next couple of weeks could be a godsend in terms of him building some chemistry with Krejci and Debrusk.
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Third line
Anders Bjork — Charlie Coyle — Nick Ritchie
Granted, it’s only been a few days, but Bjork impressed Cassidy in his return the ice, with the head coach going as far to say the 23-year-old was the best player on the ice for Monday’s session. It’s a solid first step back for Bjork after the Notre Dame product found himself in Cassidy’s doghouse during the season. If Bjork can prove his early-camp effectiveness can be sustained (and he can stay healthy), he should certainly get a chance to crack the lineup, as his presence would solidify the third line and give Boston the most lineup flexibility top to bottom it could have.
Fourth line
Joakim Nordstrom — Sean Kuraly — Chris Wagner
This is very subject to change and a lot of it depends on what happens with the third line. If Bjork (or even Ritchie) show they aren’t capable of handling the load, Kuraly could be up there in no time. It’s a very good fourth line regardless.
Forward healthy scratches
Par Lindholm, Anton Blidh
If Bjork cracks the lineup, Lindholm becomes the odd man out, but that’s still a pretty good 13th forward. He easily can draw into the lineup on the fourth line, allowing Kuraly to move up to the third if Bjork fell out of favor again. That’s certainly possible.
Forward reserves
Karson Kuhlman, Trent Frederic, Jack Studnicka, Paul Carey, Zach Senyshyn
It would be fascinating to see a player like Studnick have a great couple of weeks before heading to the bubble and really play himself into contention or at least linger on the periphery in case of injury or lineup overhaul.
First defensive pairing
Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Nothing to see here.
Second defensive pairing
Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo
Krug could make himself a pretty penny with a solid postseason.
Third defensive pairing
Matt Grzelcyk — Jeremy Lauzon
Cassidy admitted Wednesday the Bruins have a “luxury” when it comes to their defense pairings — at the moment. That’s always an injury or two from changing. Assuming health, though, Boston is in a very good spot, and Jeremy Lauzon looks and sounds like he’s the current front-runner to land that third-pairing right-D spot alongside Grzelcyk.
“At the end of the day we’ll play our six best, but Lauzy went in there and played right and gave us an element of size, grit, some abrasiveness that I thought we were lacking at the time when he went in,” Cassidy said Wednesday. “So good timing for him and he took advantage of a situation, played to his strengths.
” … I like what Jeremy did, so I don’t see any reason why if he doesn’t keep playing the same way he can’t go in there and stay on the third pair.”
Starting Goalie
Tuukka Rask
He’s good.
Backup Goalie
Jaroslav Halak
He’s also pretty good.
Extra Goalies
Maxime Lagace, Dan Vladar
