The Bruins obtained their high offensive participant again for his or her 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
Will they be getting again their greatest defenseman for Thursday’s tilt towards the Winnipeg Jets?
Coach Marco Sturm advised reporters in Winnipeg on Wednesday that he wasn’t able to say that McAvoy will return towards the Jets, however McAvoy did lead the stretch in follow, which is commonly the tell-tale signal {that a} participant is about to return.
“We have been hoping he was going to get a sport or two out of this highway journey, so we are going to determine (Thursday),” mentioned Sturm.
McAvoy has been out since struggling a damaged jaw when he took a Noah Dobson slapper off the face on Nov. 15. On the time, he weighed about 215 kilos however, because of the liquid food regimen he was on, he dropped under 200 kilos. He mentioned on Monday he’s been gaining it again little by little and that he gained again roughly half the load he misplaced. He’s been carrying a bubble and jaw protector in follow.
A McAvoy return would current drawback for Sturm. Because the Pastrnak return despatched Mikey Eyssimont to the press field in the interim, a defenseman must come out.
The simplest factor to do can be to take out Victor Soderstrom, drop Andrew Peeke to the third pairing with Mason Lohrei and pair McAvoy with Hampus Lindholm. That would depart the profitable pairing of Nikita Zadorov and Jonathan Aspirot collectively. They’re each tied for the crew lead at plus-8.
However, Soderstrom has performed effectively, albeit in a small pattern dimension (three video games, one help, plus-3), and there’s an opportunity the B’s have some discovered cash within the 2019 eleventh total decide, for whom they traded after he went again dwelling for a season and was voted the perfect defenseman within the Swedish Hockey League final season.
And in addition to Aspirot has performed, the left-shot defenseman has been enjoying on the best facet with the absences of McAvoy and Henri Jokiharju. Would Sturm ever sit Mason Lohrei and maintain each Soderstrom and Aspirot within the lineup, permitting Aspirot to maneuver over to his sturdy facet? Lohrei’s been vastly improved since he was a wholesome scratch earlier within the season and he’s on the second power-play unit.
After being a league-worst minus-43 final season, he’s at plus-4 now. However his penchant for giveaways was introduced up simply final week by Sturm when he was requested in regards to the lanky defenseman.
One other consideration is McAvoy’s pairing with Zadorov introduced out the perfect in McAvoy and it made for an excellent high pairing. We’ll see. There are many choices.
The guess right here? They go together with choice one. However then once more, we might not have predicted that Sturm would crew Pastrnak with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov, however that trio labored out fairly effectively in St. Louis.
Checking in
It seemed like Sturm was planning to return with the road of Alex Steeves-Elias Lindholm-Morgan Geekie for an additional sport.
That line had been enjoying very effectively and, regardless of the return of Pastrnak, Sturm saved it collectively for the win in St. Louis. The trio didn’t get on the scoreboard.
“I do know (Steeves) in all probability didn’t have his greatest sport (Tuesday) however I’m going to offer him one other likelihood,” mentioned Sturm. “I do know what he can do. I do know he can play higher and I additionally know the way essential he’s for this crew. He’s child. He tries actually onerous. Generally too onerous. These guys who haven’t been within the league a very long time, consistency, that’s one thing they should be taught, too.”
Whereas Steeves wasn’t nice at dealing with the puck on Tuesday, he remained bodily, dispensing seven hits, second solely to Tanner Jeannot’s 9.
Sway discovering approach
Whereas Sturm has been pushing all the best buttons recently, getting good goaltending has helped loads. Whereas Joonas Korpisalo (5-6, 3.38, .888) has offered an occasional good sport, Jeremy Swayman has been wonderful of late. His stats are wanting extra like a high goalie’s ought to (13-7, 2.67, .913) however, in keeping with MoneyPuck, he’s third within the league in objectives saves above common behind simply Logan Thompson and Ilya Sorokin. Since Nov. 1, he’s 10-3.
“Our goalies are big,” mentioned Sturm. “We talked about it in the summertime. We’d like higher goaltending. We’d like higher particular groups. I’m not frightened about 5-on-5. However the goaltending’s been excellent, particularly Sway. (In St. Louis) he saved us in early and that routinely provides us an opportunity to win hockey video games. And he’ accomplished it many occasions this 12 months.”
Swayman has performed and gained the final two video games.
Unfastened pucks
Upon overview, Pastrnak had a three-assist sport within the B’s win 5-2 win over St. Louis. The helper in query got here on Fraser Minten’s second when it was initially dominated that the puck got here cleanly off the boards however Pastrnak clearly touched it. … How do you conceal a tough evening within the faceoff circle? Rating a few objectives. Minten loved the primary two-goal sport of his profession, however he gained simply one among 9 faceoffs. He may want somewhat extra assist from his new wings.
