WILMINGTON, Mass. — Daniel Paille was a healthy scratch just once in 75 games with the Bruins last season after coming over from Buffalo in an October trade.
But this year the sixth-year forward hasn’t escaped the press box since the season opener in Prague. He has been a healthy scratch in each of the 10 games since then, but that is about to change on Wednesday.
With David Krejci sidelined with a concussion, Paille skated on the third line with Tyler Seguin and Michael Ryder in Monday’s practice, and is expected to be in the lineup when the Bruins play at Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
“It always sucks when a guy like David goes down,” said Paille after Monday’s workout at Ristuccia Arena. “But at the same time I get an opportunity here to rebound. I’ll try to the best that I can with it and hopefully positive things will come out of it.”
Despite his lack of playing time, Paille has maintained a positive attitude, confident he would get another chance after a rocky debut in Prague.
“We’ve got a number of guys that can play here,” said Paille, who was a minus-1 with no points in 12:35 in his only game. “We had a good first 10 games. We were on a huge roll, so [being scratched] was something that’s understandable. I just had to wait for my turn to get back into the lineup.”
Paille will have gone more than a month between games when he returns on Wednesday, but he isn’t worried about any rust from the extended layoff.
“I’ve been battling pretty hard in practices and in the game-day skates I tend to put in that extra effort,” said Paille, who finished with 10-10-20 totals and was a key contributor on the penalty kill last season. “So I’m hoping that it pans out for that first game Wednesday and it really pays off.”
Bruins coach Claude Julien agrees that Paille’s work ethic should minimize any issues he’ll face jumping back into game action.
“I think the one thing about Dan is he works hard,” said Julien. “You see him every day at practice and he pushes himself and does the extra [work]. There’s no issues. If anything he’ll be champing at the bit to get back in there and he’ll have a good impact on our hockey club I’m sure.”
