Bruins Notes: Sean Kuraly Has Encouraging Take On Second-Line Experiment

Sean Kuraly has played plenty of center. He’s got some experience on the left wing, too.

Playing on the right side, however, is a little foreign to him — to say the least.

The Bruins forward has been skating on Charlie Coyle’s right side as part of a third line that also features Nick Ritchie, as the B’s officially returned to practice this week ahead of the NHL’s return to play. It’s a new look for the right-shot Kuraly, and it’s something he’s rarely if ever done in his hockey career.

“(Head coach Bruce Cassidy) came up and asked me if I ever played right wing, and I wasn’t honestly sure,” Kuraly said Friday on a Zoom call with the media. “I feel like I might have, but after being over there for a couple of days, it definitely feels a little bit different even than the left side. If I’ve played there, it’s been very brief.”

It’s hard to say whether Kuraly actually will play third-line right wing when games start up next month. If Anders Bjork can display some needed consistency, he probably makes more sense at the position, and Kuraly can go back to centering the fourth line. On the other hand, the uncertainty surrounding David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase also complicates matters.

Regardless, Kuraly — who has been putting in work with assistant coach Joe Sacco — is confident in those around him.

“I’m with two good players and wherever you play with this team, you’re playing with good players,” he said. “I don’t think that’s an issue.”

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Here are some other notes from Friday.

— Joakim Nordstrom missed Friday’s practice, deemed unable to participate. Cassidy believed Nordstrom would be back Saturday.

— Goalie Tuukka Rask was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as one of the NHL’s top goalies.

— The Bruins already are turning their attention to the round-robin round that begins for them Aug. 2 in Toronto. Boston will play one game apiece against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers to determine the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference.

“The video has been a little bit tailored to those three teams,” Kuraly said. “I think we’re focused on ourselves as usual, but the video has been clips from Philly, Tampa, Washington games — a lot of the forecheck, return to D-zone. A lot of the video has been focused on those opponents. … I don’t think it’s gotten much past that. We’ll worry about the first-round opponent after the round-robin.”

— Defenseman Brandon Carlo looks thicker, and it’s not surprising he added five pounds during the pause. However, that weight wasn’t the product of being hunkered down with a bunch of food and no way to burn it off. Carlo says he built a makeshift gym in his garage and the five pounds he added was “healthy weight,” as he’s up to 224 pounds.

— Carlo also sported a chipped tooth, but it’s not what you might think.

“I broke it in junior, and whenever I’m squeezing my dogs, I grit my teeth, and it fell off throughout the summer,” he explained. “I haven’t been able to get it fixed, staying away from the COVID aspect, but I’ll get it fixed after the playoffs.”

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