The Boston Bruins’ five-game victory over the Washington Capitals in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs comes with a huge benefit: Rest.
The Bruins, by taking care of business in such short order, now will have some extra time to recharge before facing either the Pittsburgh Penguins or New York Islanders in Round 2.
“I think the overall principle was to get as much rest as possible for all facets, injury-wise,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney told reporters during a video conference Monday. “It’s been an incredibly compressed schedule. As you all know, we played a hell of a lot of games down the stretch to make up for time that we had missed through our own (COVID-19) outbreak and other teams.
“So, we’re going to use the rest and time to our advantage in that regard the next couple of days for players to be off the ice and away and spending some time with their families.”
The Bruins eliminated the Capitals on Sunday night with a 3-1 win in Game 5 at Capital One Arena.
It’s unclear at this point when Boston’s next series will begin, as the Penguins and Islanders enter Game 5 of their best-of-seven set Monday night tied at two games apiece. The earliest the Pittsburgh-New York series can end is Wednesday night.
The Bruins lost defenseman Kevan Miller in Game 4 against the Capitals last Friday, as he took a high hit from Washington defenseman Dmitry Orlov and then smacked his head on the ice. Miller missed Game 5 after a night in the hospital and his status remains up in the air.
Sweeney on Monday offered injury updates on Miller, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril, Steven Kampfer and Ondrej Kase.
On Kevan Miller
“Latest update, doing OK. Still early in the recovery phase. We’ll probably know as the week goes along how he progresses. He’s obviously back home. He was in (Monday) in the facility and checked in, but it’s still early in the process.”
On Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril
“Our hope is that they’ll both be available for the next series. Again, we’ll probably have a better understanding Wednesday in how they continue to progress and to get on the ice. Until they’re into practice with the main group, we won’t really know. But hopefully we have a little extra time and they can move along in the healing process, and then obviously getting back up to full speed to become fully available for us.”
On Steven Kampfer
“He elected to have hand surgery, so he’s in the recovery phase and unavailable for us.”
On Ondrej Kase
“Ondrej has shut it down, as well, and will not be part of the availability for us moving forward.”
