Jack Studnicka takes a seat for Bruins

Jack Studnicka is the Bruins’ best prospect who is the closest to contributing at the National Hockey League level.

He’s just not there yet, at least not unless some bad things happen for the Bruins right now.

Given a chance to skate in the top six during training camp because of the coronavirus testing issues with David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase, and then later Nick Ritchie, Studnicka played well during training camp and he also had a good game in a losing effort against Columbus in the one exhibition in Toronto.

But with those players returning one by one, the chances for young players are waning. Studnicka found himself a scratch for Wednesday’s round robin game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Coach Bruce Cassidy went with a line of Nick Ritchie-David Krejci–Karson Kuhlman and the plan for Sunday’s round robin finale against Washington is for Kase to take Kuhlman’s spot on that line.

But the fact that Studnicka came out of the lineup hardly means the organization is down on him.

“He generated a lot of our chances against Columbus. The other night he got better as the game went on. He had a few boo-boos in the games that he’ll have to learn from, but let’s face it. We all made some mistakes the other night. So he’s not out of the lineup for that reason,” said Cassidy. “He’s out of the lineup because we feel that Ritchie and Kase were brought in to help us in the playoffs and Ritchie’s going in (against the Lightning). I guess we could have pulled Kuhlie out but Kuhlie’s been down this road with us a little bit. It’s a little different look, we’ll get him some more minutes and then Kase’s going in Sunday anyway. Jack certainly could get back in the lineup. It would probably be for one of two reasons. If someone gets injured, you’ve got to look at who’s going to best fill the hole, or if an individual performance is not there. So we’re hoping that’s not the case. We’re hoping all our players are ready to go when we have a true opponent, that our guys are ready and we’re ready to play Bruins’ hockey. … That’s how it’s going to play out for Jack. I liked what I saw. Very encouraging for us down the road. But his immediate situation is he won’t play (Wednesday) and he’s going to be depth for us and we may or may not have to use him.”

Fourth line plays well

Cassidy had toyed with using Sean Kuraly higher in the lineup throughout training camp, but it appears he’s leaning toward using him in the fourth line center role between Joakim Nordstrom and Chris Wagner, a line that had good success in 2018-19. It produced the B’s only goal and bright spot in the loss to Philadelphia and had more positives on Wednesday against Tampa.

“To be honest, in the back of my mind, we at some point would have looked at that combination. We liked what it did for us in the playoffs last year. The year before there were a couple of different pieces but Kuraly was there and we liked what he brought in that role, played against good lines, D-zone starts, hopefully give you some energy, timely goals. So that was in the back of our mind no matter what,” said Cassidy.

“I know their regular season wasn’t as good analytically as maybe the year before. But this is a different time of year and hopefully with a little time apart they’ll appreciate each other and get back to their game. And it looked like (Sunday) night that was step one.”

The unit again showed some life against Tampa, putting the B’s on a power-play late in the first period when they were desperate to get anything going. Wagner then scored his second goal in as many games to tie the score at 2-2 early in the third period.

The line, however, did have a shaky shift late in the game that gave the Bolts some momentum.

Goodrow headhunting 

Barclay Goodrow may get a call from the league for his third period hit on Anders Bjork, which looked awfully predatory. Bjork had just released the puck and was prone when Goodrow came in to deliver a shot to Bruins’ head. Matt Grzelcyk went right after Goodrow but the B’s got a power-play out of it.

Tuukka time

Tuukka Rask stopped 32-of-35 shots and made some high quality saves before his rebound turned into the game-winner. He said he felt reasonably comfortable, except for his hips. On Tampa’s first goal he couldn’t locate the puck after making a good stop and the second gal was scored on a double deflection.

“I felt good. I felt normal out there. I just want to improve my hip flexors, they were cramping up at the start of the second period. But I was seeing the puck well, I was moving well, I had legs, I was tracking the puck, so I’ve got to be happy with that,” said Rask about his first full game in nearly five months.

Ritchie gets run

Ritchie made his first appearance in Toronto and provided at least a little physicality. With the B’s struggling mightily in the early going, he got a little rough with Brayden Point. Then, at the end of the second period, he and Bjork combined to crunch Ryan McDonagh on a clean but very hard sandwich hit.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Pt8UX0