Trio Of Bruins Return At Friday's Practice, Along With New-Look First Line
BOSTON (CBS) - The Boston Bruins were back on the TD Garden ice Friday morning, and so were those new-look lines that worked for head coach Claude Julien in Wednesday night's win over the Canadiens in Montreal.
At least for the most part they were. Just as Julien tinkered with his lines Wednesday night due to injuries, he did some more tinkering Friday morning.
On the B's top line, Tyler Seguin was back with Milan Lucic and David Krejci -- the same combo that scored two goals in the first two minutes of the third period en route to a 2-1 win in Montreal. But also taking Lucic' spot on occasion was forward Brad Marchand, who missed Wednesday night's game with a shoulder injury.
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Julien termed Marchand "day-to-day," and his status for Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning is still up in the air. Marchand said Friday he wanted to play in Montreal, but sat out as a precaution.
"Nobody wants to sit out, you hate to miss games," he said. "The guys did a great job in Montreal the other night and pulled off a big win. It makes it a little easier sitting up [in the press box] when they win."
With Seguin and Marchand on the front line, that meant Nathan Horton was on the second line skating alongside Patrice Bergeron and Rich Peverley. Chris Kelly centered Chris Bourque and JamieTardif on the third line, with Gregory Campbell centering Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille on the fourth -- or better known as the "merlot" -- line.
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Thornton (concussion) and Paille's (eye) status for Saturday is still unknown as wel.
But for the second straight day, Thornton said he was feeling great and appears to be primed for a return.
"It was a long week skating by myself with no goalie," the forward joked. "It was nice to be back in the swing of things, actually doing line drills."
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But with the little nicks and bruises the B's are dealing with right now, Juien said his new-look lines could change again come game time Saturday night.
"I'm not 100-percent on those lines right now; there could be some changes," Julien said Friday. "Marchand was practicing with us today; well see how he is tomorrow. Paille's in the same boat, so there's room there for changes.
"It's not a bad thing this season to put players with different players at times, because it may happen. It didn't bother me to move players around a little bit and get used to each other," added Julien. "Most of the guys have been with me for a long time, so they react to where they have to play and go with it."
Tune in to Saturday's Bruins-Lightning game on 98.5 The Sports Hub! Pregame coverage begins with Dave Goucher and Bob Beers at 6:30pm!
