WILMINGTON, Mass. — Things are beginning to come together for the Boston Bruins.
Tuesday’s Bruins practice at Ristuccia Arena offered a glimpse of what Boston’s top three lines more than likely will look like this season: Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Loui Eriksson on the first; Matt Beleskey, David Krejci and David Pastrnak on the second; and Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Spooner and Brett Connolly on the third.
Those three trios have remained largely intact since the beginning of training camp, save for some occasional mixing and matching.
The fourth line, however, remains a work in progress, with Monday’s super-sized session featuring eight forwards rotating though two units. Only four are expected to make the team.
Here what the lines and defensive pairings looked like during the practice:
Marchand — Bergeron — Eriksson
Beleskey — Krejci — Pastrnak
Hayes — Spooner — Connolly
Blidh — Kelly/Khokhlachev — Talbot
Rinald0 — Kemppainen —Â Randell/Ferlin
Krug — McQuaid
Irwin — K. Miller
Morrow — Trotman
Cross — C. Miller
Rask, Gustavsson, Smith
Some additional notes from practice:
— Forwards Austin Czarnik and Frank Vatrano and defenseman Linus Arnesson did not participate in the session. Head coach Claude Julien would not confirm whether they had been cut from the roster, but that would be the most likely explanation for their absence.
— Krejci was slow to get up after a collision behind the net midway through the session and left the ice before most of his teammates. Julien clarified afterward that the winger had taken a stick to the face.
— Zdeno Chara skated alone before practice for a second consecutive day. Julien said the veteran defenseman, who is considered day to day as he deals with an upper body injury, would not play Wednesday against the New York Rangers but did not rule out him returning in time for Friday’s preseason finale.
“Every day is a new day to evaluate him,” Julien said. “Right now, (Wednesday) he’s not (going to play), because he hasn’t practiced with the team. We’ll see how he feels moving forward here.”
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
