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Pastrnak To Take Warmups, Gametime Decision For Game 5

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Boston Bruins

More and more it seems as if Boston Bruins superstar David Pastrnak could return to the Bruins lineup for the first time since Game 1 when he scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-3 double-overtime win for the Bruins. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said that Pastrnak will take warmups prior to the 4 PM ET Game 5 start in Toronto.

“He’s going to go for warm-up, feeling much better,” Cassidy said in his daily Zoom media briefing Wednesday.

Rookies Jack Studnicka and Karson Kuhlman have both seen time ina nd out of the lineup while Pastrnak missed the last three games of the series with the former rotating with Anders Bjork and Charlie Coyle in the top-line right wing slot. Cassidy wasn’t revealing who out of Studnicka, Kuhlman or even Bjork may be the odd man out if Pastrnak does indeed return today. Nor was he tipping his cap as to how the rest of the forward lines might shake out.

“I don’t want to speculate who comes out, simply because if ‘Pasta’ doesn’t go, it’s an unnecessary move. Obviously, if he’s healthy, he’s going to go back in with ‘Bergy’ [Bergeron] and ‘March’ [Marchand] and we’ll make adjustments from there. There’re a few guys that we’ve looked at, different scenarios that we play through always – like what if you would have ‘Pasta’ go in and unfortunately does get hurt again, who’s the best fit to go up? Where do we go from there? How do our eleven forwards look or if there’s another injury, etc? So, we always factor those things in, but right now, let’s get him in the lineup first, and then we’ll go from there.”

As Cassidy did say though, if Pastrnak comes back he will be reunited with Bergeron and Marchand. Here’s this humble scribe’s guess on how the lines could shake out if the co-Art Ross Trophy winner returns:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Krejci-Kase

Kuraly-Coyle-Bjork

Nordstrom-Lindholm-Wagner

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