Bruins coach Jim Montgomery made it clear from the start that he would move Tyler Bertuzzi around a little bit, just as he did with Dmitry Orlov during his first few games in Boston.
Bertuzzi has spent his first two games as a Bruin on the third line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. That trio has certainly shown some promise, most notably when Bertuzzi set up Coyle for a goal in Saturday’s win over the Rangers.
Now it’s time to tinker, though. At Friday’s practice, Montgomery moved Bertuzzi up to the second line with David Krejci and David Pastrnak, breaking up the Czech line and dropping Pavel Zacha to the third line in the process.
Bertuzzi was actually on the ice with Krejci and Pastrnak for a Boston goal against the Rangers, although the three have had just a couple shifts together. Montgomery thinks the newest Bruin can bring a little more grit to that line and give them a little bit of a different look by getting to and working in dirty areas in and around the net. Plus, Bertuzzi has shown off some playmaking through two games that could work well with elite playmakers like Krejci and Pastrnak.
Zacha, meanwhile, brings a little more defensive responsibility to the third line than Bertuzzi might have, and Montgomery sees shutdown potential in a Zacha-Coyle-Frederic trio.
“Little bit of experimentation just to see what it would look like,” Montgomery said. “We know from early in the year that Zacha with Coyle and Frederic is a real good shutdown line, so there’s a real good secondary shutdown line. Zacha has penalty killed for us all year and knows our D-zone coverage, so that has a lot to do with it.
“And then I thought Bertuzzi’s made a lot of plays, so put him with some other playmakers. He makes plays and goes to make plays in different areas than those guys, so just to see if there would be some chemistry there.”
Of course, the Czech line has plenty of chemistry and has generally been the Bruins’ best offensive line at 5-on-5, with Boston outscoring opponents 27-12 when Zacha, Krejci and Pastrnak have been on the ice. Their Corsi and expected goals share remain under 50%, but Montgomery explained recently why he wasn’t concerned about that.
Montgomery can always put the Czechs right back together if things don’t go well with Bertuzzi on the second line, but there’s enough time left in the season that it seems worth it to give Bertuzzi a shot there just to see what it looks like. And coming off a quiet night for the whole team offensively in Thursday’s loss to the Oilers, this is as good a time as any.
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Bertuzzi’s first game on his new line will come against his former team, the Detroit Red Wings. The Bruins host the Wings Saturday afternoon at TD Garden, and the two turn right around and play again Sunday afternoon in Detroit. Bertuzzi acknowledged this will be a bit of a weird weekend for him.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be weird. I don’t know what to think,” Bertuzzi said Friday. “…Obviously these two games are gonna be a little different, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
A small injury update
The other news out of Friday’s practice was a little bit of an update from Montgomery on the injured Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno. Both are out with lower-body injuries, and the only indication of any sort of timeline was general manager Don Sweeney saying it was “unlikely” either returned during the regular season, but otherwise leaving things open-ended.
There hadn’t even been any update about the second opinion Hall had gone for. On Friday, Montgomery at least indicated that the Bruins have some optimism about getting them back for the playoffs.
“What we’re expecting is for Taylor Hall to hopefully be an option come playoff time,” Montgomery said when asked about Hall. “We don’t have an update there, different than that.”
He was then asked about Foligno.
“Same thing,” he said. “They both have suffered pretty significant lower-body injuries, and it’s just gonna take time.”
Obviously that’s not a ton of information, but it does at least suggest that neither is being ruled out for the full postseason, and it sounds like it’s not out of the question that one or both could return at some point during the first round.