WILMINGTON, Mass. — The Bruins have finally strung together consecutive strong performances in back-to-back wins over Philadelphia and Toronto.
When they try to maintain that momentum on their upcoming West Coast swing, they'll have a familiar face along for the ride.
Rich Peverley, who continues to rehab his injured knee, will travel with the team for its games in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.
"He's coming on the trip with us, yup," Julien said.
Peverley has been out since suffering a third-degree sprain in his right knee on a knee-on-knee hit from then-Canadiens defenseman Hal Gill in Montreal on Feb. 15. Peverley has missed 17 games with the injury, but did return to the ice last Wednesday and skated with the team for the first time in Monday’s morning skate.
The Bruins held an optional practice on Tuesday at Ristuccia Arena, with Peverley among a handful of players who took the ice.
While Peverley is progressing well and will join the team on the trip, Nathan Horton will stay in Boston and remains out indefinitely with a concussion suffered Jan. 22 in Philadelphia. He has not resumed skating since suffering a recurrence of symptoms in his first attempt back on the ice in early February.
"Same old, same old. Nothing different," Julien said of Horton. "He's still working out, but not on the ice yet."
One member of the small contingent on the ice on Tuesday was goalie Marty Turco. He has not seen any game action since his first and only start as Bruin last week in Tampa Bay. Turco was pulled after allowing three goals in 4:31, then later returned to finish out the game after Tim Thomas was also pulled. Turco finished having allowed four goals on just 12 shots and has not played since.
That could change on this upcoming trip, and with another week of practice under his belt, the Bruins hope that Turco will be better prepared to help take some of the workload off Thomas' shoulders down the stretch.
"There's no doubt. When he's been facing the kind of shots that he's been facing now for an extra week, he keeps getting better," Julien said. "And I think that's why he's putting in the extra time. He wants to get his timing on, and the timing here versus the timing where he was [in Austria] is not the same. We've got the best shooters in the world playing in this league, so that's something that he's willing to do.
"He's got a great attitude," Julien added. "He's not afraid to work. He's not afraid to put the extra time in. And that's huge for us, because we're probably going to need him down the road here."
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