Boston Bruins
Pastrnak Closing On Bruins’ Return, ‘Itching To Get Out There”

BRIGHTON, Mass β The Boston Bruins return for leading game-breaker David Pastrnak has become imminent as he practiced with the group for the first time without a no-contact sweater on Monday morning.
David Pastrnak out of the no-contact practice jersey this morning. One step closer to a return to game action ππ¨ pic.twitter.com/PHPwv4cDdl
β BOSHockeyNow (@BOSHockeyNow) January 25, 2021
The 23-year-old right wing has been ruled out from playing in either of this weekβs home games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but Pastrnak hasnβt been ruled out from potentially playing this weekend against Zdeno Chara and the Washington Capitals.
βHe skated in a normal jersey today, so he took contact. Itβs the next step in his progression. Weβll see how he handles that,β said Cassidy, who has had Pastrnak skating in a no-contact jersey for the last couple of weeks. βI donβt suspect heβll play in any of these home games, but heβll probably travel with us and weβll see from there. Itβs good news on him, but weβll see how heβs doing [on Tuesday].β
Pastrnak skated without any restrictions on Monday morning at Warrior Ice Arena while going through line rushes with Brad Marchand and Par Lindholm (Patrice Bergeron took a maintenance day) and is expected to reclaim his rightful spot on the Perfection Line when he does return to game action. Needless to say, the NHLβs leading scorer is excited to be healthy and poised for a return to the lineup after a lengthy five-month rehab, and the league is a much more exciting place with him.
βA lot of excitement. Itβs been a long road. Iβm obviously itching to get out there,β said Pastrnak, who had an NHL-leading 48 goals and 95 points in 70 games for the Bruins last season. βHopefully I get some more good days like this upcoming. I hadnβt been through anything like this in my career before, so it was something new. But I did learn a lot about my body. Itβs the worst part for a professional athlete is obviously the injuries.
βIt was really exciting to be out there practicing with the guys. Iβm feeling great on the ice and I really, really canβt wait to get back out there. Itβs wonderful skating on the ice pain-free, so Iβm excited to be back. Iβm really, really happy that I [had the surgery].β
The Boston Bruins have done a solid job without him and actually enjoyed their best offensive output over the weekend when they posted six goals against the Philadelphia Flyers, and 10 goals over the last four periods of hockey against Philly.
Otherwise, both Bergeron (slammed into the post last weekend) and Matt Grzelcyk (lower body) were missing from Mondayβs practice (along with Ondrej Kase, who is out with a concussion) with the Bruins defensemenβs lower body injury βfeeling betterβ while shooting for a return vs. the Penguins this week.
Here are the line combos and D-pairings from Bruins practice on Monday with Bergeron and Grzelcyk both missing:
Marchand-Lindholm-DeBrusk
Ritchie-Krejci-Pastrnak/Studnicka
Frederic-Coyle-Smith
Bjork-Kuraly-Wagner
McKegg
Lauzon-McAvoy
Clifton-Carlo
Zboril-Miller
Vaakanainen
Rask
Halak
Vladar