Boston Bruins Ready To Go For Intrasquad Scrimmage

The Boston Bruins are set to play … the Boston Bruins in an intrasquad scrimmage at TD Garden Thursday night. Captain Zdeno Chara, who has missed only one day of full-contact practice since missing the series-clinching Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final last Thursday will play “with no limitations” and be paired with his usual partner, Charlie McAvoy on the blue line. Chara, his teammates, and the coaching stuff are hoping Thursday served as the perfect recipe to get the Bruins back into gameday mode.

“The original plan was to get us back into the gameday routine. Come in the morning and do our video, so we did some St. Louis stuff this morning,” head coach Bruce Cassidy told the media Thursday morning. “Optional skate and go down to the rink. Just be at the rink for 7 p.m. and then try to just replicate the routine. The on-ice will be a little bit more of a practice time. With the flooding of the ice and warm-up, it’s going to drag a little bit. That was the original plan, and now it’s a little bigger than we envisioned, so here we are.”

Cassidy warned that while the team opened this up to the public and appreciates the support, they’re not necessarily there to entertain. This is getting back to business for the B’s.

“We’re there to get some work done,” the head coach said. “This is just a practice for us. This is not a show. So we’ve got to be careful guys don’t get caught up in ad-libbing out there. It’s preparing for St. Louis. It’s managing pucks and not getting away from the way we generally want to play by putting on a show. That’s the risk you take tonight. We just want to be focused on our work. But for the fans to show that kind of support? How can you not like it?”

Per Cassidy, here’s how the teams will be broken down:

The top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, as well as the fourth line, will remain together and Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo will stick together as a D-pairing. Black Aces Paul Carey, Jack Studnicka, Zach Senyshyn, and Peter Cehlarik will form a Providence Bruins line.

On the other side will be the B’s second and third lines the David Krejci Line and the Chara/Charlie McAvoy pairing along with Trent Frederic, Anton Blidh, Karson Kuhlman.