Joe Morrow on cracking lineup for 1st time since Jan: ‘I don't feel rusty'

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OTTAWA – It looks like the bruised Bruins are going to need to dig deep on defense. 

Colin Miller couldn’t make it through a full practice Friday at the Bell Sensplex practice facility. He left practice due to a lower body injury caused by a leg-on-leg hit from Mark Borowiecki in Game 1 on Wednesday night. That leaves him doubtful for Saturday afternoon’s Game 2 matinee vs. the Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre, and means the Bruins are leaning toward activating little-used Joe Morrow for a playoff game. 

Morrow hasn’t played in a game at all since an AHL conditioning stint with Providence in February, and hasn’t played in an NHL game for Boston since early January. The 25-year-old Morrow said he isn’t rusty from the long layoff and is excited to get back into the fray, but there are real questions about what the former first round pick can bring to the table for Boston. 

“I don’t feel rusty at all, personally. I skate every day with these guys at practice,” said Morrow, who had one assist and a minus-4 rating in 17 games this season after making the team out of training camp as the last player still with the B’s organization from the Tyler Seguin trade with Dallas. “Anytime you’re not able to play in the games it’s frustrating. Nobody wants to just practice all the time. You grow up wanting to play the game, wanting to play in the playoffs and dreaming of competing for a Stanley Cup. 

“So it’s definitely frustrating, but at the same time you need to let things develop and just go along with how it is. Whether the opportunity comes or not is not always in your hands, but you just work hard every day and stay in shape to play in that next game.”

There’s still some question as to whether Miller will somehow feel good enough to play on Saturday and Bruce Cassidy didn’t guarantee that Morrow is in the lineup. But it doesn’t appear that Matt Grzelcyk or Tommy Cross will be called up from Providence and there’s no sign that Brandon Carlo or Torey Krug are anywhere close to a return. 

“It’s always a concern coming into the lineup at this time of the year when you’re a young guy, whether you’ve played or not,” said Cassidy. “So he’s going to have to get himself into the game in a hurry. We expect there to be some rust for lack of a better term. But guys have done it and he’ll have to do it. He’s been practicing and he hasn’t been injured, so that part will be fine. It will be more about getting up to speed mentally in a hurry.”

So while the Bruins are leading in the best-of-seven series, they’re starting to lose the war of attrition vs. the Senators after just one game. It remains to be seen if it will catch up to them, but the presence of Morrow in the lineup indicates it might be time to start getting worried from a B’s perspective.   

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