The Bruins may be getting one of the usual members of their fourth line back as they try to avoid elimination Monday night. Sean Kuraly, who has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury, was back on the ice for Sunday's practice, and coach Bruce Cassidy said he was "progressing."
They'll be without another fourth-liner, though, as Cassidy said right wing Chris Wagner will be unavailable. It's unclear exactly what happened to Wagner, but his last shift in Saturday's Game 4 was late in the second period, and he wasn't even on the bench for the third.
Nick Ritchie is also a question mark for Game 5, as he didn't skate Sunday either. Ritchie took his regular shifts through the end of the game, including after his third-period fight with Barclay Goodrow, so it's unclear what the issue is.
Ritchie found himself in the penalty box in all three periods Saturday, for a retaliation roughing in the first, for a dangerous late hit on Yanni Gourde that landed him a five-minute major in the second, and then for the fight in the third. He seemingly would've been a candidate to be a healthy scratch after such a performance, but Cassidy defended him after the game and blamed the officiating instead, so maybe not.
Goalie Jaroslav Halak was on the ice only briefly Sunday, but Cassidy said he's fine and will be ready to go for Monday.
How the Bruins replace Wagner will actually be pretty interesting. All their usual fourth-line guys (Kuraly, Joakim Nordstrom and Par Lindholm) are left shots and not natural fits to play the right side.
The option that may make the most sense is putting Karson Kuhlman, who played on the third line in Game 4, there, and bringing in Jack Studnicka to play on the third line with Charlie Coyle and either Ritchie or Anders Bjork. Studnicka could also bring some much-needed offensive creativity that has been missing from the Bruins' 5-on-5 play the last few games.
As far as what Cassidy wants to see from his team Monday night, regardless of who's in the lineup, he said he expects them to once again show that they're a resilient group and to bring their best effort.
"They're definitely resilient," Cassidy said. "I believe they'll put their best foot forward, and we're going to have to. We're playing against a good hockey club that doesn't give an inch. It's on us to make sure we execute better with the puck, finish a few more plays, and obviously defend a little better. I don't think it's been domination. It's just they've made the right plays at the right times in the games and gotten into the lead.
"That's what we're looking at. Let's focus on our first period, our start. Be better early on so we're not giving up much and then create at the other end and finish. Formula sounds basic, but it's what you need to do right now. How we get there is what we have to discuss, the things that go into that. At the end of the day, it's focus on the first period of the next game and not worry about what's ahead of that."
After calling out the Bruins' "second layer" players a few days ago, Cassidy clarified that in a situation like this, it still starts with your top players and then hopefully everyone else follows from there.
"I think our core will (step up)," he said. "They have to. Your best players need to be your best players. I think what I was getting at the other day was they're going to have some nights where they need the secondary group to push up. Every team, if you're going to advance in the playoffs, needs that. You're seeing it with Tampa. Their third line had a game – listen, the games start running together. (Blake) Coleman had a couple goals and I thought that really helped their cause. Obviously (Nikita) Kucherov and (Brayden) Point are doing their thing and (Andrei) Vasilevskiy.
"At the end of the day, you need contributors. We saw that – I'll use last year's run where I thought Charlie Coyle, (Marcus) Johansson, those two guys really carried a line and I think it was the Columbus series they were first for a while when our other guys weren't scoring. And then you need team defense and that's where we've been off a little bit.
"So tomorrow, yes, you need your core guys. I believe they'll lead us. But defense needs to be good, especially against this club. We need to help Jaro out with the quality of shots we're giving him. So that part of the message – and it was yesterday, I think we were better at it. Not good enough obviously. We had some breakdowns early with odd man rushes. The (Ondrej) Palat goal in front of our net where we're usually terrific, we have to clean that up. We have to. To sit there and go into the game and say, ok we need that player, that player, and end up trying to score five goals is not the formula. That's our goal tomorrow. Core, lead the way. Support guys, follow. Leaders and followers. That's typically how we've been good and it won't change tomorrow."
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