Bruins notebook: Brett Ritchie returns after brief infection scare

The Bruins need more right wing depth than ever, and Brett Ritchie returned to the lineup Monday night against Pittsburgh to cure some of those woes.

Ritchie, who had started to get on a bit of a roll for the first time since joining the Bruins, was dealing with an infection that caused him to miss Saturday night’s game.

As it turned out, it wasn’t an infection from a cut like it was that’s been keeping Joakim Nordstrom out for over two weeks.

“It was a bruise, not even a bad one, but somehow got infected,” Ritchie after the morning skate. “It came out of nowhere, but I guess it takes a couple days to settle down. … I knew it wasn’t gonna be a long-term thing. It was just sort of day-by-day how it was reacting and I’m glad I only missed the one game, a couple days.”

Ritchie slid back in alongside Charlie Coyle, and the two of them had been building up some chemistry before Ritchie was shelved.

“We’re both big guys, play a similar style, try to hold onto the puck and try and win battles,” Ritchie said. “Pretty simple, straight line. We know we have some speed on our wing with (Anders Bjork), so that should work well, I think. Coyle’s one of the best puck-protecting guys you’re gonna see in the league. You can read off him well. The simpler we are, the more battles we win, the harder we are to play against.”

Work to do

Winger Peter Cehlarik was sent back to Providence before Monday’s game, with Cameron Hughes making his NHL debut in his lineup spot, and he left the Bruins with a lot still to be desired.

Cehlarik, who played in just three games this time around, has had a couple of NHL stints now without things coming together, and coach Bruce Cassidy‘s expressed frustration with the lack of development of his game on numerous occasions; the latest send-down is just the latest example, with them feeling Hughes could do some things better, at least for now.

“It doesn’t mean (Cehlarik) couldn’t have done it if he’d played a certain way,” said Cassidy. “We saw Danton Heinen do that and a number of guys go through that. That’s how (Brad Marchand) started years ago. It’s just not his game right now, so we’re not going to force it on him. If he was able to adapt a little more then maybe we’d put him in more. At the end of the day, we liked the penalty killing side of it with Hughes.”

That’s kind of been the theme on Cehlarik from the start for Cassidy, who is still hoping the Czech winger can show a bit more.

“Certainly, Peter’s capable of more,” said Cassidy. “I thought the puck found him a little more the other night. He didn’t make plays. If he’s gonna stay up here and that’s the type of game he’s gonna bring, then he’s gonna have to have some level of production. If he does that, then he probably gets a longer look, so that’s kind of our discussion this morning.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Cf7RTP