McAvoy, Nordstrom Return, Ritchie Out For Bruins

The Boston Bruins got two players back at practice but another joined forwards David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase as both remained on the ‘unfit to play’ list. 

Winger Nick Ritchie, who has been alternating wings around center Charlie Coyle with Sean Kuraly, was not on the ice but back were forward Joakim Nordstrom and defenseman Charlie McAvoy. McAvoy was back in his normal spot alongside Zdeno Chara on the top defense pairing and Nordstrom was back on the left wing of the fourth line with Par Lindholm and Chris Wagner.

The rookie crew of the forward corps got shuffled around again on Thursday as Anders Bjork jumped up to the first line to play the right wing with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, Jack Studnicka rode shotgun on the right of David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk and Karson Kuhlman took Ritchie’s spot next to Coyle and Kuraly. McAvoy was looking good on the PP as well. 

The top 6 on the blueline remained the same and all four goalies practiced.

Also noteworthy from Thursday’s skate was that head coach Bruce Cassidy went heavy on special teams. On a day when the NHL’s 32nd team became the Seattle Kraken, Cassidy got the powerplay cracking with David Krejci replacing David Pastrnak on the top powerplay unit and Jake DeBrusk went down low as the net-front presence.

Here’s what the lineup looked like on Thursday:

Forwards

Marchand – Bergeron – Bjork

DeBrusk – Krejci – Studnicka

Kuraly – Coyle – Kuhlman

Nordstrom – Lindholm – Wagner

Blidh/Carey-Frederic – Senyshyn

Defense

Chara – McAvoy

Krug – Carlo

Grzelcyk – Lauzon

Moore – Clifton

Vaakanainen – Zboril

Goalies

Rask

Halak

Vladar

Lagace