It is pretty much a tried and true fact that at some point during a Stanley Cup playoff run, your depth is going to be tested, especially on defense.
The Bruins are already being reminded of that in their first-round series against the Capitals, as they are now well down their depth chart on the blue line as they look to close out Washington in Sunday night's Game 5.
Kevan Miller became the latest Boston defender to be sidelined when he took a high hit from Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov and hit his head on the ice during Friday's Game 4. He is out for at least Game 5.
Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril and Steven Kampfer all remain sidelined as well. Lauzon took a shot off his right hand during Game 1 and has been out since. Zboril was injured in the final game of the regular season and remains unavailable.
Kampfer played the entire regular-season finale, but apparently suffered an arm injury at some point between then and now. Coach Bruce Cassidy said Kampfer is not available now and won't be going forward, so it sounds like that is a longer-term injury.
All that leaves the Bruins with Jarred Tinordi and Urho Vaakanainen as the next two on the depth chart, and Cassidy confirmed Sunday morning that it will be Tinordi who goes in for Miller and lines up on the third pairing next to Connor Clifton.
Tinordi certainly has some history with the Capitals this season. After Tom Wilson drilled Brandon Carlo in the head back on March 5, it was Tinordi who first stepped up and dropped the gloves with Wilson (Trent Frederic would also do so later in the game).
Then on April 18, Tinordi was on the receiving end of another dirty hit, when Garnet Hathaway ran him from behind and sent him face-first into the boards. Tinordi suffered a broken nose and required some stitches as a result of the play.
Tinordi did not play for three weeks after that and needed to wear a face shield when he did return, a face shield he says he is now done with. He played 22:20 in the Bruins' regular-season finale in Washington as Boston rested most of its regulars.
"I'm excited," Tinordi said Sunday about getting in the lineup. "It's tough to see players go down. You never want to see that. You never want to get in under those circumstances. But we're here right now, we've got a big game tonight, and I'm ready to go."
Here is the Bruins' expected lineup for Game 5:
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall - David Krejci - Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie - Charlie Coyle - Jake DeBrusk
Sean Kuraly - Curtis Lazar - Chris Wagner
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly - Brandon Carlo
Jarred Tinordi - Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
On the Washington side of things, it looks like the Capitals will be substituting Daniel Sprong in for Michael Raffl up front as they look for some more offense. Ilya Samsonov is expected to get a third straight start in goal after being the first goalie off the ice at morning skate.
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