BOSTON — Much like most of his Bruins teammates, there wasn’t much memorable in Nick Ritchie’s first game in Boston.
The newest Bruin, who was acquired from Anaheim, Monday afternoon, flew across the country Monday night, skated with his team Tuesday morning and was in the lineup for Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss to Calgary.
Ritchie was a minus-2 with seven hits over 21 shifts and 14 minutes, 17 seconds of ice time. He was part of Coach Bruce Cassidy’s unsuccessful third-period line scramble that saw Ritchie play first with Charlie Coyle and Andres Bjork followed by a stint with David Krejci and Karson Kuhlman.
“I thought he was fine. I’m not going to judge him on a – he flew in here yesterday. He’s trying to get acclimated,” Cassidy said. “There has to be a decent amount of period before we see what we got, and then go from there. I’d rather not, I’d rather watch some tape and see if, did he finish checks, did he get inside? Some of the details he’s going to bring to us. ”
Ritchie, who was traded for Danton Heinen, admitted he wasn’t in sync yet.
“I don’t think it was a great game by the team. Obviously my first game, some getting used to a different team and different players. It’s tricky, hopefully, it will come sooner than later,” said Ritchie, who wore No. 21. “Anytime you play with new guys in a new locker room, new city and new building, it’s going to take a little bit to shore things up.”
He said he resisted the natural temptation to try to risk getting out of position lay a big hit to make an early impression.
“You’re better off if you just play your game, play under yourself and play comfortable. I think I’m going to get to that soon,” Ritchie said.
The Bruins didn’t have practice Wednesday, so Thursday’s game against Dallas will be another game learning on the fly as he said there’s not much he can do off the ice to gain cohesion.
“The game is the time to improve and get to know everybody,” he said. “Obviously watch film Thursday morning and get right back at it, Thursday night.”
BLUES: Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has been ruled out from returning to play in the regular season or in the playoffs.
In a news conference at the Enterprise Center, Bouwmeester spoke to reporters for the first time since he collapsed on the bench in the first period during a game at the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 11.
“It was a scary thing, but its been going pretty good lately,” he said. “We’ll continue to evaluate things as it goes. I’m at the point now where I feel pretty good.”
Bouwmeester said there was no warning anything was about to happen.
“Everything up to that point was normal,” Bouwmeester said. “I hadn’t been sick, or had much going on. It was completely out of the blue.”
The 36-year-old Edmonton native was hospitalized at the UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange County, California, and spent five nights in the hospital.
Bouwmeester had a cardioverter defibrillator implanted into his chest. It is a device that monitors heart function. It also can deliver a shock to the heart if an arrhythmia happens to restore a regular heartbeat.
CANADIENS: Defenseman Victor Mete will miss the rest of the season with a broken foot.
MAPLE LEAFS: Defenseman Jake Muzzin will be out about four weeks with a broken hand.
The Leafs have recalled defenseman Calle Rosen from the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies to fill the roster spot.
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