BRIGHTON, Mass – The Bruins will be down another forward for their game Saturday night with the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden as Brett Ritchie (infection) is out following a problem with a cut that didn’t heal properly.
It’s a similar situation to Joakim Nordstrom, who hasn't played since the win over the St. Louis Blues a week ago and will be out at least three more games with an infection. Ritchie has been playing pretty well the past few weeks but with him down, the Bruins have called up Peter Cehlarik to play on the third-line right wing with Anders Bjork and Charlie Coyle.t
Cehlarik played one game this season, the victory over the Rangers on Oct. 27, when he took an offensive zone penalty, was a minus-2 and had zero shots on net in 12 plus minutes of ice time, and it was clear afterward that Bruce Cassidy hadn’t been all that impressed. So, Cehlarik is obviously hoping to have a better effort this time out after putting up six goals and 10 points in seven games with Providence of the AHL.
“I just recognize where I’m at and trying to work on my game every day. Yesterday is passed, so I’m just looking forward today and getting better,” said Cehlarik. “Being more experienced, making better decisions with and without the puck, having a good stick on the fore-check and being heavy on the fore-check.”
The Bruins will also swap out bottom-pairing defenseman as Steve Kampfer subs in for Connor Clifton as Matt Grzelcyk’s defense partner.
Here are the projected line combos and D-pairings based on the optional morning skate at on Saturday at Warrior Ice Arena:
Boston Bruins
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Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Heinen
Bjork-Coyle-Cehlarik
Wagner-Kuraly-Backes
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Kampfer
Rask
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