Bruins could add reinforcements vs. Senators (Dec 30, 2017)
OTTAWA -- The Boston Bruins could be getting some help when they play the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night.
Center David Krejci and defenseman Adam McQuaid could play against the Senators, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy told the team's website. They both participated in a limited practice on Friday.
McQuaid has missed 30 games with a broken right fibula. Krejci missed the past five games with an upper body injury.
"I just need to wake up (Saturday) and feel as well as I did today," Krejci said on the Bruins' official Twitter account. "All good. (Thursday) I felt really good. Today I felt good again today. If I wake up tomorrow and feel as good as I felt today, I'm pretty optimistic I'll be in the lineup."
"I feel like I'm pretty close," said McQuaid. "I'm continuing to feel better and better, so that's a good sign. I'm antsy to get back in there."
Said Cassidy: "Yes, a chance for both. If we like where they're at then, they will both be game-time decisions. We're not going to automatically assume because (Saturday) is a new day."
The Bruins, who had their five-game winning streak halted with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday, are two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division and hold three games in hand. The Bruins are 7-1-2 in their past 10 games.
The Bruins had leads of 2-0 and 3-2 against the Capitals, but couldn't hold them off.
"At the end of the day, they're a good team for a reason. Obviously, we want to extend leads, and we had opportunities to, we just didn't finish," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy told NHL.com.
The Bruins defeated the Senators 5-1 in Boston on Wednesday. Riley Nash had two goals and an assist against the Senators and David Backes had a goal and an assist. Backes had two goals against the Capitals, giving him nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past six games.
The Senators defeated the Bruins 4-2 in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
"We know how when they are on, they play their system well, how they can transition quickly if you're not careful," Cassidy said. "How they play in the offensive zone with three high, where their looks come from. We happened to do a good thing against them, which we didn't do a lot of last year, which was play with the lead. We got out in front early and maybe forced them to alter their game. That again will be our game plan."
The Senators will be playing back-to-back games. They overcame a 3-1 deficit at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 5-4 win on Friday, a rare offensive outburst. They hadn't scored five goals in a game since a 6-5 win against the Winnipeg Jets Dec. 3.
"We capitalized on the scoring chances we got, whether they were odd-man rushes or things around the crease," Senators captain Erik Karlsson said. "We did a better job of finding the net today and that's something that's been missing for quite some time now. It's nice to see that the guys still know what they're doing."
Forward Matt Duchene has struggled since joining the Senators in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 5. He scored the goal to make it 3-3 on Friday and now has three goals and three assists in 22 games with the Senators.
"We've just got to keep building," Duchene said. "Hopefully the tide is starting to turn a little bit. I think that's been a big part of things for us. We haven't been rewarded offensively and then we start to get away from our game a little bit and things snowball. Hopefully that starts to come when we play the way we did (Friday)."
The Senators are 3-2-2 in the second of back-to-back games this season.
