Even though Matt Grzelcyk will return from an upper-body injury Tuesday night against the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy will not slot him back with Charlie McAvoy on the first defense pairing.
Grzelcyk, who missed Boston’s 2-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, will play with Brandon Carlo at Madison Square Garden. Mike Reilly, who filled in nicely Saturday logging 21:31 of ice time, including 1:09 on the power play, will see another game with McAvoy.
After Tuesday’s practice, Cassidy explained the reasoning.
“I thought Mike was good with Charlie (against Ottawa). I thought they were a good pair,” Cassidy told reporters, per team-provided audio. “He’s probably the only guy that hasn’t played with Charlie since I’ve been here. What the hell, we might as well look at him, too, and go from there.”
The duo logged over 46 minutes of ice time combined in Saturday’s win and complemented each other well. Playing Grzelcyk with Carlo also could help get the latter back on track after not looking quite himself of late.
Jack Ahcan, despite playing well, will be the healthy scratch.
Bruins-Rangers is set for 7 p.m. ET on NESN.
