BOSTON — The Boston Bruins saw a few fresh faces get back into action Thursday night.
Jake BeBrusk (concussion), Zdeno Chara (MCL) and Kevan Miller (throat) all played in the Bruins’ 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden. Each player seemed to play their game with some conviction, something that assuredly must be encouraging for the Bruins given the respective ailments each player was dealing with.
“To be honest I think it was decent starting off,” DeBrusk said. “As it went along there were a couple little detail things that I definitely have to clean up, but it was obviously nice to get back out there. Not the result we wanted by any means, but you’ll get more reps and when you do that you’ll feel better.”
DeBrusk nearly scored on a power play less than six minutes into the game, and finished his night with one assist, three shots on net, two hits, a giveaway and a takeaway.
“Yeah, actually there was (some mental hesitation),” the winger said. “I was trying to let the game kind of come to me at the start and try to feel my way through a couple shifts.”
After being told it looked like he had his legs beneath him, the 22-year-old accepted the compliment but politely disagreed.
“Legs felt fine, any time that I have rest — and obviously with an injury you will — they’ll be there,” he added. “I actually thought that I didn’t really have my legs tonight, so appreciate it. But I think I can be faster and I’ll need to be moving forward.”
Just over three minutes into the game Chara, who had missed the previous 19 games, uncorked a heavy shot from the point that went just wide of the net, but got a nice buzz out of the crowd. He skated pretty well on the top pairing with Matt Grzelcyk.
“Other than (timing), felt pretty good to be honest with you for the first game after a long time,” Chara said. “But I thought as the game went on you start feeling better and better.”
Head coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t throw the defenseman right back into the fire, as he logged 19:13 ice time, fourth-most among Boston’s defensemen.
Here are some other notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Devils game:
—Â Miller was not made available to the media after the game to react to his return, but he skated for 16:50 on the third pairing with John Moore.
A clear sign he was feeling comfortable was when he laid a big hit on Jesper Bratt along the boards deep in the defensive zone with just under six minutes left in the first period.
— With every forward healthy, Cassidy shuffled the lines a bit, reuniting Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on the top line.
While Danton Heinen started off on the second line left wing alongside David Krejci and DeBrusk, he was relegated to fourth line duty during the game, with Joakim Nordstrom getting bumped back up to the second unit.
— Chris Wagner scored his fourth goal of the season in the win.
— The Bruins now will travel to play the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. The B’s have a game in hand on the Sabres and trail them for third place in the Atlantic Division standings by three points.
