The Boston Bruins will be without their top defenseman and their No. 1 center when they take on the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Wednesday night.
Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (upper-body) will miss a second straight game after exiting in the third period of his team’s 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres last Thursday night. Top pivot Pavel Zacha (upper-body) won’t be in the lineup either after leaving in the first intermission of the Bruins’ 5-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes this past Saturday. Both players are still listed as day-to-day and have not been ruled out for Friday’s game against the Islanders on Long Island. Based on the fact that McAvoy has skated before practice the last two days, the team’s top rearguard appears to be closer to a return than Zacha.
Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery will once again have to reshuffle his forward lines and defensive pairings and called on his healthy players to elevate their game to compensate for the key losses in the lineup.
“You don’t replace one of your top two centers and you don’t replace you’re top D-man with an individual,” Montgomery told the media after practice on Tuesday. “It’s got to be a concerted effort by everyone eating more minutes, and they’ve got to do the job.”
As a result of Zacha not making the trip to the New York metro area, the Boston Bruins called up forward Jesper Boqvist from the Providence Bruins. Since being sent down to the AHL in late October, Boqvist has five goals and nine assists in 24 games for the P-Bruins.
“There’s a lot of players playing well right now down in Providence,” Montgomery replied when asked why Boqvist was recalled. “It’s a little bit of how well he’s playing, and also it’s New Jersey, that’s where he played. I always find guys dig in and want to show the other team why they could have kept them.”
Here’s what the lineup looked like for the Boston Bruins at Tuesday’s practice:
Forwards
Jake DeBrusk-Morgan Geekie-David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic
James van Riemsdyk-Matt Poitras-Danton Heinen
Jakub Lauko-John Beecher-Oskar Steen
Defensemen
Hampus Lindholm-Ian Mitchell
Matt Grzelcyk-Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei-Kevin Shattenkirk
Goalies
Jeremy Swayman
Linus Ullmark
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