With Brad Marchand suspended for five games and Noel Acciari and Patrice Bergeron both missing practice on Wednesday, the Bruins have shored up their forward depth by calling up rookie Anders Bjork on emergency recall.
JOE HAGGERTY
Bjork traveled with the Bruins to Ottawa and will be available for the Black and Gold against the Senators on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre ahead of NHL All-Star break weekend. It would appear that the Bruins will need the services of both reserve forward Frank Vatrano and call-up Bjork if both Marchand and Acciari end up out of the Boston lineup.
The 22-year-old Bjork has appeared in 28 games for Boston in 2017-18, tallying four goals and eight assists for 12 points with a plus-two rating in pretty solid production for a rookie in his first NHL go-round. He showed plenty of speed and pretty consistent offensive skill in his first NHL go-round with the Black and Gold earlier this season, but Bjork wasn’t consistently as engaged as he probably needed to be in a top-5 role.
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He has also produced two goals and two assists in eight games in a little bit of slow-going offensively with Providence since getting sent down to the AHL for a little more development work.
Boston Bruins
Marchand is clearly out for the next five games, but Bergeron is expected to play after gutting through the Tuesday win over New Jersey while feeling “under the weather” the entire day.
Acciari is fighting through a lower body injury that’s hampered him on and off the over the last few weeks, and he could be the expected second absence from the Boston lineup that necessitated the Bjork call-up.