TORONTO -- It looks like rookie defenseman Matt Grzelcyk may get back into the Bruins lineup for Game 4 on Thursday night after missing a game with a lower body injury.
Grzelcyk was out for the Game 3 loss on Monday night after suffering a lower body injury in Boston’s blowout win last weekend, but practiced in full at Air Canada Centre on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a pivotal tilt in the best-of-seven series.
Coach Bruce Cassidy said following practice that Grzelcyk had a “good chance” of playing Thursday, which would once again push Nick Holden to the press box as a healthy scratch. Grzelcyk was a plus-1 rating in the two games he played while averaging over 16 minutes of ice time per game, and clearly his skating speed and ability to quickly move the puck is a plus against a fast, quick strike Toronto team.
“He’s got the footspeed to be able to match that part of the game when [Toronto’s fourth line] takes off, and in transition we’ve been a pretty good team that can strike off turnovers or punted pucks when it’s unstructured,” said Cassidy. “He’s a guy that can get it up in a hurry and doesn’t have to go D-to-D, and he usually delivers a good first pass. That was something we missed [in Game 3]. Nick [Holden] was fine, but that’s really Grizz’s strength. I think he’s defended very well for a young guy in the league, and a guy that’s 175 pounds. So we missed him.”
Other than Grzelcyk coming back into the lineup, it didn’t look like there were going to be any changes going into Game 4.
Here are the projected line combos and D-pairings based on Wednesday’s practice:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Nash
Heinen-Nash-Backes
Schaller-Kuraly-Acciari
Boston Bruins
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Miller
Grzelcyk-McQuaid
Rask