GLENDALE, AZ.Rich Peverley went through full practice with the Bruins at jobing.com Arena as the Bruins settle themselves for a couple days in Phoenix before moving on to Dallas for Saturday nights New Years Eve tilt with the Stars. Peverley donned a gray jersey to skate with Chris Kelly, Benoit Pouliot and Zach Hamill, and appeared to have fresh skating legs befitting a player thats sat out three straight games.
Claude Julien said that the shifty, feisty Peverley should be ready to play against the Stars this weekend barring any setbacks, and that would amount to the rich getting richerno pun intendedwith the Bruins riding a seven-game winning streak.
Peverley looked good today. Unless theres a setback I dont see any reason why we shouldnt keep moving forward with him, said Julien. The rest that hes gotten has certainly allowed him to get better. To me he looked good skating-wise. He was probably fighting the puck a little bit, but thats what happens when youve been out for that long.
Peverley himself said hes feeling good and ready to jump back into the lineup, but it was probably wise to skip a road game on a subpar ice surface in Phoenix that could have exacerbated his undisclosed situation in game conditions.
Its been there a little while . . . for most of the year. Its something I can play through and it gets better every day, said Peverley. Any time you can get rest it definitely helps. The conditioning falls a little behind when youve had six or seven days off the ice. I feel pretty good and Im ready to go here. So it should be good.
Peverley has 10 points in nine games during the month of December, and has been playing some of his best hockey of the season while playing through the nagging issue prior to getting shut down just before Christmas.