When you hear that a player is out “week-to-week” in the NHL’s current injury parlance, that’s usually not a very good sign. It often means that a player could be out for a month or more.
That’s why when Taylor Hall was termed “week-to-week” on Sunday after suffering an upper-body injury in Saturday’s preseason game against the Flyers at TD Garden, it was a surprise to see him taking a twirl on the ice with rehabbing players Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy on Wednesday morning prior to the Bruins’ practice.
Exactly how long Hall was on the ice wasn’t clear. He left well before Marchand and Mc-Avoy finished their session. But Coach Jim Montgomery is taking it as a good sign that he was at least able to get back on the ice so quickly.
“What I’m finding out is how tough he is. And I guess his pain tolerance is really high,” said Montgomery. “He’s pushing it. He doesn’t want it to be week-to-week and we’re just monitoring it right now. That was his first day on the ice, so we’ll see how he feels (Thursday). So there’s a little bit of hope that he can be back sooner than week-to-week.”
Still, the season opener next Wednesday is coming up quickly. With two preseason games left (Wednesday and Saturday), Montgomery still has figure out how to replace Hall in the lineup should he not make it back.
Wednesday night against the Rangers, Montgomery was planning to go with the much talked about Czech line – Pavel Zacha, David Krejci and David Pastrnak, with Pastrnak making his preseason debut. He also moved Jake DeBrusk – who had been skating on the right side with center Patrice Bergeron – back over to his natural left side.
Montgomery did say he’s “highly considering” moving DeBrusk back on to his strong side for the time being.
“All options are on the table,” said Montgomery. “Whether it’s a right wing or left wing, we’re thinking of a lot of options to play with Bergy and JD.”
Another option for the Bergeron line could be 19-year-old rookie Fabian Lysell. The right wing, who suffered an upper-body injury last Saturday, was cleared to play on Wednesday, and he was going to at least start on a line with center John Beecher and left wing Jakub Lauko.
What has been impressive about Lysell?
“How quickly he can get into a scoring position,” said Montgomery. “We saw it on the power play this morning again. He has the ability to get inside quickly to scoring areas and he puts people on their heels. That play where he came around the top and he had JD on the back side, that’s a high-end skill. Not a lot of people see the opportunity, create the open ice and attack it that fast.”
Montgomery said that some veterans have taken the young Swede – who had 22 goals and 40 assists in 53 games last year in the Western Hockey League – under their wing, particularly on how to move the puck at the NHL level.
“We’re really lucky with the veteran players we have here,” said Montgomery. “They’ve already talked to him about that. ‘Give me the puck in this situation, you’re going to get it back here with more time. You don’t need to carry it to give me the puck in this position. We can move it here.’ Whatever the veteran players are telling him, I think his development has been quicker than we expected in that aspect. I give full credit to our veteran players.”
OSKAR STEEN may get another chance to prove himself in the Bruins’ organization after the right wing – who had a disappointing training camp – cleared waivers on Wednesday. He will be assigned to Providence.
Whether it was the second year of his one-way deal at $800,000 that made teams reticent to claim him or not, 31 other teams decided to pass. In camp, the gap between his play and Mark McLaughlin’s was too wide to ignore.
“I just think other players outplayed him in camp so far and that was the determining factor,” said Montgomery.
Defensemen Connor Carrick and Nick Wolff also cleared.
The next big decision will be on Jack Studnicka, currently battling with Tomas Nosek for the fourth line center spot. Studnicka requires waivers. Considering the possible dearth of centers after this season, it would seem wise for the Bruins not to take the same chance with him that they did with Steen.
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