After missing six of the Bruins' previous seven games, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk returned to the lineup Wednesday night, and the hope was obviously that it would be the start of a good, long run of health as he tries to move past his early-season injury woes.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Grzelcyk didn't really look like himself in the Bruins' 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers and wound up playing just 11:41, well below the 20-ish minutes he was playing earlier this season when healthy. He didn't take a single shift in the final nine minutes of regulation or in overtime.
It's unclear if Grzelcyk re-aggravated the lower-body injury he was already dealing with, suffered a new injury, or just wasn't quite all the way back in the first place, but the end result is that he's now expected to miss at least Friday night's game. Coach Bruce Cassidy classified Grzelcyk as "day-to-day" with a lower-body injury on Thursday.
With Grzelcyk expected to be out, Connor Clifton will go back in. Clifton has made the switch from his natural right side to his left off side in the six games Grzelcyk has missed, and has played pretty well next to Brandon Carlo for the most part.
Kevan Miller also missed Thursday's practice, but Cassidy said that was just a maintenance day. The rest of the Bruins lineup is expected to remain the same as Wednesday night.
Jack Studnicka is now healthy as well, but with no obvious spot for him in the lineup, he is currently with AHL Providence and played for them Thursday afternoon.
Here is the Bruins' expected lineup for Friday. We don't know the starting goalie yet, but the expectation is that Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak will split the back-to-back games Friday and Saturday, in whatever order.
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie - David Krejci - Craig Smith
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Anders Bjork
Trent Frederic - Sean Kuraly - Chris Wagner
Jeremy Lauzon - Charlie McAvoy
Connor Clifton - Brandon Carlo
Jakub Zboril - Kevan Miller
