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A Patrice Bergeron return is near |
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When the Bruins hit the ice at TD Garden Thursday night to host the Anaheim Ducks, a familiar face may be joining them.
A face the Bruins need back in the lineup.
With the Bruins in Montreal Monday night for a contest with the Canadiens, and a scheduled day off on Tuesday, Patrice Bergeron is expected to join his teammates on Wednesday for practice. It would mark the first time he has done so since suffering an injury in Dallas last month.
With Bergeron,—who has been skating on his own—a guy like him doesn’t need much practice time before jumping right back into game action.
“I think Bergy will practice with us. We’re off on [Tuesday] - it’s a scheduled day. I can give you guys a heads up, make some golf plans for Tuesday. So Wednesday, I would anticipate that he’s got a good chance,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said prior to Sunday’s contest with the Buffalo Sabres.
“But again, we’ve got a few days before then but we’re hoping he’ll skate with the team by Wednesday. Whether that means he plays Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, I don’t know but at least he’s one step closer.”
So with what will be one full practice under his belt, could Thursday be the much anticipated return of Bergeron?
“Could be a possibility, if he gets through practice Wednesday and he’s feeling great, gets some contact, but again, those are things that we’re hoping that’s how it’ll play out because that’s our next real scheduled practice,” Cassidy added.
At first, the Bruins were getting by without Bergeron. They were grinding games out and finding ways to earn points. But things have gotten difficult for the Bruins and a Bergeron return couldn’t come at a better time. The Bruins have lost five of their last eight, and are now 7-6-1 without their best all-around player.
The Bruins could have used everything Bergeron brings to the table in Sunday’s loss to the Sabres. Buffalo’s top line of Jeff Skinner, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart torched the Bruins for four goals and five assists en route to a 4-2 victory at TD Garden.
With the David Krejci line having issues containing the Eichel line, and an ill Brad Marchand, Cassidy bumped Marchand down to the second line, and moved Joakim Nordstrom into Marchand’s previous position, hoping to slow the Eichel line down.
"I didn’t think Krech’s [Krejci] line had anything early on. Marchy’s [Marchand] under the weather so expected him to be a bit off, but it just didn’t look like was going to be a good matchup against Eichel,” said Cassidy. “Turns out none of our match-ups were. His line clearly had their way, no matter who we put out there and it ended up being the difference in the game.”
With Bergeron close to a return, what to do with the lines is something Cassidy is starting to think about as the team continues to battle issues with secondary scoring.
Will Bergeron be back centering Marchand and David Pastrnak?
“I would suspect he would,” Cassidy said. “That line’s going pretty well, so at least it would be food for thought anyway, but that would be our plan.”
Or will Cassidy split the three up, and balance out his top four forwards evenly?
“Or maybe we split them up – put Bergy [Bergeron] and Marchand and Krech and Pasta [Pastrnak] and try it then,” added Cassidy.
“I’ve said I wanted to do it when we get our full lineup, but we’re getting closer to that.”
Regardless of who ends up where and next to whom, the Bruins will just be happy to have their top center back in the lineup.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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