Brett Ritchie was missing from the Bruins practice ice on Friday amid “some level of concern” that he might not be able to play on Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators.
Ritchie has been playing better as of late while providing some secondary scoring and physical thump befitting his power forward size and strength, and had his first donnybrook in a Bruins uniform on Tuesday night when he threw punches with the Sharks' Barclay Goodrow.
Bruce Cassidy termed Ritchie’s absence a “maintenance day”, but the Bruins had a full day off on Wednesday and three days in between games ahead of Saturday’s tilt with the Senators that kicks off a stretch of three games in four days.
“He was out. He had a maintenance day so we were a little shorthanded [at forward],” said Cassidy. “As far as we know [he’ll play]. We’ll have a better update tomorrow, but he wasn’t out there today so there’s obviously some level of concern.”
Defenseman Connor Clifton took his spot at practice Friday at Warrior Arena, but one would suspect there will be a call-up from Providence for Saturday’s game if it’s decided that Ritchie can’t go. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Ritchie has two goals and three points in 11 games for the Black and Gold, but has definitely seen his play pick up the past couple of weeks as the Bruins’ need for secondary scoring was present.
Tuukka Rask is set to get the start for the Bruins against the Sens after also starting on Tuesday night vs. the Sharks, and will have started four of the past five games as he starts to get a run going between the pipes.
Boston Bruins
Here are the line combos and D-pairings from practice with Clifton dressed as a winger for his post-Halloween costume:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Heinen
Bjork-Coyle-Clifton
Wagner-Kuraly-Backes
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Kampfer
Rask
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