There were a couple surprises at the Bruins’ morning skate on Thursday. The first was that Tuukka Rask was on the ice, in all his goalie gear, manning one of the nets. That turned out to be a relatively minor development: Rask was simply performing emergency backup duties with Jeremy Swayman under the weather. The Bruins are expected to call up Brandon Bussi from AHL Providence to back up Linus Ullmark for Thursday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. Swayman could be back by Saturday.
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The second surprise was a little more significant: defenseman Derek Forbort was not on the ice and Mason Lohrei was. The Bruins announced a short time later that Forbort had been placed on long-term injured reserve and Lohrei had been recalled from Providence.
Forbort was on the ice for Wednesday’s practice in a regular jersey, but Boston coach Jim Montgomery revealed on Thursday that Forbort needs time off to deal with a lower-body injury that has been lingering all season and got worse during the Bruins’ recent stretch of nine games in 16 days. Forbort will first be eligible to return on Dec. 31, although it’s unclear if he’ll be ready by then. Montgomery said surgery is not on the table.
Lohrei, meanwhile, is back after what wound up being just a three-game stint in Providence. The 22-year-old rookie played 10 games in Boston while Matt Grzelcyk was out injured before being sent back to the AHL on Nov. 25.
In that case, Lohrei was at least an approximation of a 1-for-1 replacement stylistically (despite a noticeable difference in height). He is certainly not stylistically similar to Forbort, though, so this will require a defense-wide adjustment for the Bruins.
Lohrei will slot into Forbort’s usual spot on the third pairing next to Kevin Shattenkirk on Thursday, but he almost certainly won’t get the heavy defensive-zone usage that Forbort does. Lohrei flashed offensively at times during his first stint in Boston, but struggled a bit defensively, so Montgomery will likely want to shelter him and spread Forbort’s D-zone starts around elsewhere.
Lohrei will also not be replacing Forbort on the penalty kill, where Forbort leads the team in shorthanded time on ice per game. Hampus Lindholm will slide up to the top PK pair next to 5-on-5 partner Brandon Carlo, while Grzelcyk will take on second-unit PK duties next to his usual 5-on-5 partner, Charlie McAvoy.
Montgomery said the reports on Lohrei since he went back to Providence have been encouraging, and that he’s excited to see the young blue-liner continue to develop at the NHL level.
“He did really well, he was really dominant the first week he was back,” Montgomery said. “Was not as dominant this weekend, but still helped the team win some hockey games. We know what he's done for us here and how good he's been, and we're excited to see where he’s at in his development stage now, which is going to help us like he did last time we played Buffalo.”
Here is how the Bruins are expected to line up for Thursday’s game. Brad Marchand is expected to play after missing Wednesday’s practice and Thursday’s morning skate to attend services for his grandmother, who passed away on Friday.
Jake DeBrusk - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Charlie Coyle - Danton Heinen
James van Riemsdyk - Matt Poitras - Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko - Johnny Beecher - Morgan Geekie
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei - Kevin Shattenkirk
Linus Ullmark
Brandon Bussi