Cassidy Goes With Familiar Duo Of Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci

A familiar forward duo was together again on Tuesday morning at Warrior Ice Arena. Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy put Jake DeBrusk back on the left wing of veteran center David Krejci. Karson Kuhlman handled right wing duties on the club’s second line on day 2 of ‘NHL Return to Play’ camp.

“It may. Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder too. So maybe they’ll reconnect after a little time away,” Bruce Cassidy said when asked about the duo getting back together. “They’ve had good chemistry in the past. They’re not ‘Marchy’ (Brad Marchand) and ‘Bergy’ (Patrice Bergeron) simply because they haven’t had the reps or years of work. Jake isn’t in Marchy’s category when it comes to time in the league and resume.”

Jake DeBrusk scored 19 goals in 65 games this past season. Krejci, meanwhile, had 13 goals and 43 points in 61 games with a revolving door of wingers.

“Certainly ‘Krech’ (David Krejci) and ‘Bergy’ are very similar. So, you gotta give that a little more time to grow,” Cassidy continued. “So, we’re gonna go back to it. If we don’t like what we see through some of the round-robin or practices, then Jake goes with Coyle and we try probably (Nick) Ritchie or someone else. So we’re gonna give it a look and see where it’s at.

Krejci, for what its worth, isn’t overly worried about what line combination he finds himself on this early in camp.

“Right now I think it’s just to get up to speed,” Krejci said via video conference. “It’s really good to be back out there with the guys, competing in practices and just being out there and to feel the puck. I feel like, within the next week or two, I’m sure we’ll be working on some similar stuff as a line and as a team, it’ll come. But right now, I think the most important thing is to just kind of get up to speed, get the compete level up and go from there.”

Cassidy agrees that it is early. The coach admitted that it’s tough to really get a feel for things while just doing drills.

“Again, I still think its early,” Cassidy said. “Until we start getting into some, you know, good five-on-five and even within our own group see how they play five-on-five against as live as possible competition and see where it leads. We try different things because we made deals at the deadline to try and get guys in their most comfortable position.”