It appears that David Pastrnak will be a question mark on Saturday, but despite his status, the Bruins expect to have some changes to the lineup.
Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed so much Friday afternoon ahead of Bruins-Hurricanes Game 3, which is set for Saturday afternoon ET.
‘We thought it through. We had some boys on the ice today, ”said Cassidy. “There’s always a lot of bruises and bruises of the day, so to sit here and tell us that our position (now) is inaccurate as a result, but we will make some changes in forward and (defense). Again, some of that is to get some energy into the lineup and change the look of our forward team. ”
That even Cassidy does not know exactly what his lineup will look like on Saturday. But since we have some time to kill until puck drops, let’s try a few options. We will do this exercise under the impression that Pastrnak is not, an assumption (again, an assumption) because of the early onset.
Attackers
Idea One – Nick Ritchie out, Par Lindholm in
Ritchie looked good in the round-robin game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but otherwise he was subdued – to the point that his inability to close plays or get where he needed to be resulted in the opponent scoring. He seems to be a candidate for the lineup, so in this situation Ritchie goes out, Sean Kuraly moves to the left wing of the third line and skates with Charlie Coyle and Karson Kuhlman, then Lindholm joins Joakim Nordstrom and Chris Wagner .
Idea Twa – Karson Kuhlman out, Par Lindholm in
Kuhlman came out in Game 2 with Pastrnak, but it is clear that he is seen as the 13th forward. Cassidy spent many of the early stages of training camp putting Ritchie, Coyle and Kuraly on a line, so maybe he’s giving that a go in a game situation, with Lindholm taking over in Kuraly’s usual four-line center role.
Idea three – Nick Ritchie out, Jack Studnicka in
Let us first make abundantly clear, this is a far-fetched view. But if Cassidy really wants to be nuts while also playing each of his wings on their strong side, he could give this a shrink. You put Studnicka on the first line right wing in place of Pastrnak, while Anders Bjork drops back to the third line left wing with Kulman on the right and Coyle between them. It would be a pretty hefty gamble, and if the youngsters did not have it, the Boston bench would get a short quick, but if nothing else, that front group would play with quite a bit of energy.
Idea Four – Karson Kuhlman and Nick Ritchie out, Jack Studnicka and Par Lindholm out
So in this case, you give Coyle the irresistible task of putting him together with a couple of guys who never play together in Kuraly and Studnicka, while Bjork stays on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Lindholm then goes to the fourth line. In this scenario, it’s hard to see how the Bruins get much better without putting humongous question marks on their first and third lines, but there is at least the staff to turn on the blender and move things.
In short, the thought here is that Kuhlman and Ritchie are the likely odd men, and their chances of seeing only increase, of course, if Pastrnak is available.
As far as defense is concerned, there are really only two possibilities, and both include healthy scratching Jeremy Lauzon. That would mean Connor Clifton or John Moore enter, at which point the conversation is over what style Cassidy wants to install on the third coupling.
Moore is the safer player, but his chemistry with Matt Grzelcyk has not been great this season. And Cassidy indicated that some of the changes in the lineup will be with the idea of getting energy in the lineup, so if he did not mean that for only forward, then Clifton is the obvious choice – and it’s something of a plus that between Clifton, Lauzon and Moore, Clifton is the sole judge.
He’s an aggressive player, sometimes too much for his own good, but the one thing you can not doubt is that he can bring a shock. If Cassidy thinks the Bruins are too listless, then Clifton makes an exchange for Lauzon.
Prediction: Considering all of the above, here’s our guess at a Game 3 setup (again, assuming Pastrnak is not available).
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Anders Bjork
Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Ondrej Kase
Sean Kuraly – Charlie Coyle – Karson Kuhlman
Joakim Nordstrom – By Lindholm – Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Connor Clifton
Thumbnail by Greg M. Cooper / USA TODAY Sports Images
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