Bruce Cassidy Shakes Up Bruins Practice Lines, Pairings After Loss To Rangers

Bruce Cassidy has seen enough to know he needs to shake things up for the Boston Bruins.

Boston the last two nights has delivered woeful performances, losing 7-2 and 6-2 to the New York Islanders and Rangers, respectively.

And Friday’s loss to the Blueshirts was enough to convince the Bruins head coach to mix things up, after he already had been contemplating a line change the night prior.

While the top six stayed in tact during Saturday’s practice, Cassidy pulled Anders Bjork and Chris Wagner out of the bottom six.

Here’s how Boston looked up front.

Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Trent Frederic–Jack Studnicka–Jake DeBrusk
Sean Kuraly–Greg McKegg–Karson Kuhlman

If McKegg plays Sunday against the Rangers, it will be his Bruins debut. Kuhlman has played in two games for Boston this season.

On the back end, the Bruins welcomed back Matt Grzelcyk. With Grzelcyk back, Cassidy elected to bump out John Moore.

Thus, they rolled with Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy on the top pairing, with Brandon Carlo and Jakub Zboril as the second duo. Connor Clifton skated with Urho Vaakanainen on the third pairing.

This obviously could change if they get recently-claimed defenseman Jarred Tinordi to New York in time to play Sunday, but that’s not a sure thing at this point.

The Bruins have had a largely successful season, they’ve just been in a bit of a rut lately. These moves presumably would be enough to shake the trees of a few guys without making an absurd amount of moves.