Bruce Cassidy “Hopeful” For Full Lineup Thursday

Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy has been working with a limited roster for the entirety of the team’s ‘Return to Play’ camp. Although that did not change on Tuesday, Cassidy is hopeful that come Thursday he will finally have his full group.

“Absolutely. We went through, again, some testing stuff. But didn’t work out exactly in our schedule,” Cassidy said Tuesday when asked if he could have some players back soon.. “So hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday) we’re on time with that. We have talked about a maintenance day for the guys that have been here all along. So wouldn’t read in necessarily to the numbers tomorrow (Wednesday). Thursday will probably be a more accurate count.”

David Pastrnak, Ondrej Kase, David Krejci, Sean Kuraly, Charlie Coyle, Chris Wagner, Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy and Tuukka Rask were all deemed ‘unfit to play’ over the weekend. All missed practice on Saturday, with six of the missing Bruins returning on Monday.

Chris Wagner, meanwhile, returned on Tuesday. Wagner had missed the last two practices. Anton Blidh, who missed Monday’s skate, also returned to the ice Tuesday.

“We’re discussing that internally,” Bruce Cassidy said regarding Wednesday’s maintenance day. “We’ll make that decision this afternoon. Thursday will be, like I said, we’re aiming for full numbers.”

Pastrnak and Kase skated last Wednesday, but have been MIA since. Pastrnak’s media availability last Thursday was cancelled, and it was later learned that he had been skating in Malden with local kids and had broken quarantine. They have not skated since.