Kevan Miller remained sidelined Wednesday night as the Boston Bruins visited the Edmonton Oilers, sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
The 28-year-old defenseman had been medically cleared to return after missing the previous five games with a concussion, but given the Bruins won all five games in his absence, coach Claude Julien opted to keep his defensive corps intact.
“If they’re going to continue to do well, there’s no real rush,” Miller told reporters Wednesday morning, via BostonBruins.com. “At the same time, I want to get back in games and just feel it out. So, once I’m feeling pretty much back to things, we’ll go from there.”
The Bruins, who went on to lose to the Oilers 3-2 in a shootout, did not announce their starting lineup until minutes before puck drop. Miller skated during warmups, and Julien said he would have been comfortable using him if the need arose.
“He’s a guy that we feel is almost ready — could use a little bit more time, I think,” the coach told reporters Wednesday morning. “But in a pinch, I have no problem putting him in there.”
Miller has played in 17 games this season, tallying one goal and four assists.
Some additional notes from Wednesday’s game, which kicked off a three-game road trip for the Bruins:
— Oilers defenseman Andrew Ference was a healthy scratch for the game, but the former Bruin spoke beforehand about the impact another B’s castoff, general manager Peter Chiarelli, is making in his first season in Edmonton.
“I like his approach,” Ference said, via The Boston Globe. “I think he’s extremely honest. He’s very businesslike. It’s not a lot of emotion wrapped up into his decisions and stuff, so I think it’s great.
“The stuff that he did in Boston, put together teams full of guys that were great together, that worked well together. It wasn’t always just the best player that he could bring in, it was the best player for our team, the best fit.
“I know we always appreciated that in Boston. When new guys would come in, it seemed like they just kind of fit right into that attitude that we were trying to build. That’s a huge credit to the stuff that he did there.”
The 36-year-old Ference has played sparingly this season, seeing action in just six of the Oilers’ first 26 games.
— Bruins prospect Zach Senyshyn had himself quite the Wednesday night up in the Ontario Hockey League.
Senyshyn, whom Boston selected 15th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, lit the lamp four times for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, and his first goal of the evening was a thing of beauty.
The 18-year-old forward received a stretch pass near the blue line, skated all alone into the offensive zone and slid the puck back between his legs before flipping it past Sudbury Wolves goaltender Zack Bowman.
(Video via Stanley Cup of Chowder)
This type of thing is becoming a habit for Senyshyn, who netted a similarly spectacular goal early last month.
Senyshyn’s five-point night — he also added an assist in a 10-3 Greyhounds rout — gave him 15 goals and six assists in 26 games this season.
— The Oilers will be moving into a new arena next season, meaning Wednesday’s game was the Bruins’ last at Rexall Place.
The 41-year-old barn, which has housed the Oilers since their days in the World Hockey Association, hosted five Stanley Cup games between Edmonton and Boston. The Oilers won four of those, including the clincher of the 1988 Cup Final.
NESN color commentator Andy Brickley, who was a member of the 1990 Bruins squad that lost to Wayne Gretzky & Co., reflected on some of his memories of the arena during Wednesday’s broadcast.
“This is a hockey town, Jack,” Brickley said to play-by-play man Jack Edwards. “It’s fun to play here.”
— Each of the Bruins and Oilers’ last two meetings have been decided in a shootout, with Edmonton emerging victorious in both. For those who don’t recall, here’s the 12-round epic these teams endured last February:
Thumbnail photo via Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports Images
