BRIGHTON, Mass – The Bruins, as expected, made a flurry of roster moves after waiving Brett Ritchie on Wednesday. The Bruins called up speedy Karson Kuhlman from Providence where he’d been playing since recovering from a broken leg and also promoted 6-foot-5 goaltender Daniel Vladar on emergency recall after placing Tuukka Rask (concussion) on injured reserve.
Rask was at the Bruins practice facility on Thursday morning getting treatment, so he’s obviously feeling better a couple of days removed from the blow to the side of his head. But it’s expected he’ll be out through the bye week and All-Star weekend, and that Jaroslav Halak will most likely get the next three starts beginning on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Bruce Cassidy was asked if the waiver of Ritchie, who cleared through waivers and will report to Providence, was due to the lack of physical response to Rask getting laid out against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night, and pointed to his lack of consistent play as the culprit.
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It’s odd timing given that Ritchie had played his best hockey of the season over the last few weeks, and clearly the Bruins are going in a different direction with speed and skill now that Kuhlman has been inserted into the top-6 on the second line.
“Not particularly,” Cassidy said when asked if it was a response to a feeble response to Rask getting knocked out of the game. “His overall play since we signed him has been inconsistent. We feel he’s had some good games and done some of the things we asked and expected when we signed him, and other times we felt like we had to push him to get there. The timing of our guys getting healthy has something to do with it, i.e. Kuhlman. He’s a guy that played well last year.
“He’s a completely different player than Ritchie in terms of his stature, but we like his ability to play with pace, help on the fore-check and he adds to the penalty kill. So we have another tool for special teams. We feel he can help us.”
Boston Bruins
While Trent Frederic would have been the natural call for a Bruins team clearly in need of some brawn and toughness among their forwards, it’s also just as clear B's management doesn’t feel he’s ready yet to take on that role at 21 years old. Anton Blidh also skated with the Bruins on Thursday while still on a rehab assignment in the AHL from shoulder surgery, and the B’s indicated he may soon return to add “some spunk” to the lineup and “drag us into some of these battles.”
In addition to all of the other moving and shaking on the Bruins roster, David Krejci is a game time decision for Thursday night with an upper body injury. He quickly left the ice after taking a few shots at the net during morning skate.
Here are the projected Bruins line combos and D-pairings vs. the Penguins based on Thursday morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena:
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk-David Krejci/Par Lindholm-Karson Kuhlman
Danton Heinen-Charlie Coyle-Anders Bjork
Joakim Nordstrom-Sean Kuraly-Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara-Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug-Brandon Carlo
John Moore-Matt Grzelcyk
Jaroslav Halak