The Boston Bruins are missing half of their top-six.
Not ideal.
Brad Marchand and Craig Smith both were added to the COVID-19 protocol Tuesday, then Patrice Bergeron landed on it Wednesday. Barring more positive tests, the Bruins will be down those three when they face the New York Islanders on Thursday.
The Bruins have Jack Studnicka and Oskar Steen called up, and there could be another addition in light of the development with Bergeron. So where, exactly, will the pieces fit? Well, that’s a bit of a guessing game right now.
Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak seem to have good chemistry, so putting them together feels like the wisest move. At that point, it probably makes the most sense to just have Charlie Coyle centering them. There’s your first line.
The second line probably would have Studnicka centering it. Boston then could put him with a few veterans with Erik Haula on the left wing and Nick Foligno on the right.
It makes sense to keep the Anton Blidh-Trent Frederic-Curtis Lazar fourth line together for continuity’s sake, so then the Bruins have to string together a third line. Jake DeBrusk figures to be the left winger, with Tomas Nosek in the middle. Then, it’s down to either Karson Kuhlman, Steen or another potential call-up (like Zach Senyshyn or Jesper Froden) to be the right winger. With so many changes up and down the lineup, Kuhlman might have the edge because of his experience.
These situations demand flexibility out of everybody. Fortunately for the Bruins, their next three games are scheduled against the 29th, 30th and 31st overall teams in the NHL, so if there ever was a time to play games with a ragtag squad, it would be now.
