Bruce Cassidy and Bruins are pleased to be household, even at an empty TD Yard

Bruce Cassidy is nonetheless acquiring employed to missing so lots of small specifics that stitched a regular recreation working day collectively. But the commute to TD Backyard isn’t a person of them. His generate to North Station Wednesday was abnormally sleek thanks to the irregular instances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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TD Back garden is not going to be packed with supporters Thursday night, but Bruins gamers were happy to be back again on residence ice at exercise Wednesday.

“Very little targeted visitors I could get utilised to that, to be honest with you,” the Bruins mentor explained. “I enjoyed that portion of it.”

A working day in advance of their property opener Thursday evening in opposition to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Bruins stepped on the ice at the Backyard garden for the first time since last March.

“Just form of the aura of participating in in the Boston Yard, it feels exclusive every time coming back again listed here,” claimed defenseman Matt Grzelcyk.

The last time the Bruins played at the Garden was March 7, 2020, when they misplaced, 5-3, to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Just after the NHL went on hiatus because of the pandemic, the Bruins returned for a playoff run in the Toronto bubble.

Centre Charlie Coyle soaked in the acquainted surroundings and received reacquainted with the boards and the ice.

“It feels great,” Coyle claimed. “It’s nice to be back in this developing. We really like participating in here and we skipped it. So that was great.

“If there is matters on the boards or the ice or just to feel it out, I consider it is excellent to get accustomed to that. So I feel it was good to get out there now. Really feel about and just be back in this developing and really feel snug actively playing right here all over again.”

Cassidy discovered the team shifting with an more bounce currently being household right after starting off the period 1-1-1 with 3 straight street game titles.

“I imagine the fellas had a lot of electrical power,” Cassidy explained. “It was fantastic to see. At times that happens just mainly because you have had a working day off and you’re back again house in each regard — your very own mattress and residence, and so on.

“I consider a very little little bit is we have not skated in the Back garden in a long time. We’ve performed well here more than the years, so we’re just form of psyched to be back again and skate with the significant emblem, the ‘B,’ at middle ice and we’ll see tomorrow how that performs out for us.”

The most apparent distinction will be the vacant seats. With no lovers in attendance, the ambiance will be compared with any household opener the Bruins have professional. Cassidy mentioned he talked to Celtics mentor Brad Stevens about what to hope.

“He said it was unique for him at 1st,” Cassidy explained. “It just took a minimal although to get used to. I imagine it’s in all probability going to be like the very first time we ended up in Toronto in the bubble when you’re seeking all-around.

“It’ll be regrettable due to the fact we’re utilized to coming out, you know, the songs that are participating in or the crowd’s driving you. I imagine it’s genuinely assisted us in the previous. But clearly, we won’t have that.”

The intensity at the Backyard has built it just one of the toughest excursions in the NHL in new decades. Considering that 2016, only the Penguins (.714), Capitals (.713), and Lightning (.694) have a higher property profitable percentage than the Bruins.

“I think it is surely an gain to participate in in front of our house admirers below,” Grzelcyk reported. “Talking to other players around the league, it is a rather daunting area to engage in and we generally feed off their electricity. But we have experienced a minor little bit of encounter with it in the earlier, so ideally, we can come out guns blazing proper absent and get to our video game.”

Coyle echoed the sentiment.

“We want that aid in the building,” Coyle mentioned. “It’s the finest spot to perform when you have your lovers there and the making will get loud, but it is just not the scenario. So we’ve got to shift on. We know we have that help sitting at property on the sofa and looking at us, which is fantastic to know.

“And we know what our admirers convey from not just in the arena but somewhere else. But we’ve bought to shift on and create our have electricity and make positive we do what we can do to continue to be targeted all over the sport, no make a difference what ups and downs are coming our way.”

Cassidy said that while the Bruins shed a big element of their home-ice edge, there are nevertheless some benefits.

“I don’t know how substantially you can call it property-ice edge with no crowd, but I imagine there is,” he explained. “There’s a particular amount of familiarity with your dressing area, the constructing, the rink, the lights. All those factors can nonetheless give you rather of an edge.

“Maybe not like with a full group, but ideally it does for us for the reason that it’s been a lengthy time due to the fact we’ve played here and we’ve been a actually fantastic workforce at TD Yard above the previous several many years.”

Grzelcyk a game-day conclusion

Grzelcyk’s availability will be a video game-day final decision. The defenseman experienced to leave Monday’s loss to the Islanders in the third interval after getting tangled with Jordan Eberle, then falling and injuring his remaining shoulder. Grzelcyk experienced surgical procedure on the very same shoulder in 2014.

“I believe it could have been a large amount worse,” he said. “Just sort of a very little nick from some thing I’ve had in the previous. But feeling great suitable now and desired to examination it just before observe. But emotion really close to 100 %.”

With Matt Grzelcyk’s injury position unclear, Bruins may possibly have to shuffle lineup on protection

Grzelcyk practiced Wednesday without any issues. Cassidy said he “seemed great.”

“I haven’t definitely talked to the trainers or everything, but I come to feel definitely fantastic and follow went definitely properly,” Grzelcyk stated. “No hiccups today, so do every thing I can to make confident that I’m in the best placement tomorrow to be in the lineup.”

Not-so-intelligent pucks

The NHL’s experiment with pucks embedded with tracking engineering did not make it by way of the 1st 7 days of the year. Just after gamers and coaches complained about the puck’s effectiveness, the league pulled the plug, quickly shelving the good pucks until the troubles can be resolved.

The Bruins have scored a league-reduced a few ambitions by way of a few online games, but the pucks had absolutely nothing to do with the offense’s struggles.

NHL pulls microchipped ‘tracking’ pucks 6 days into year

“I assume it’s possible we can use that as an excuse,” Grzelcyk mentioned with a smile. “But I didn’t definitely recognize it, to be straightforward. I feel anyone outlined it. I occurred to get a penalty in New Jersey, and just one of the refs was speaking about it. That was the initially time I’d listened to about it.

“But nothing truly stood out as well a lot. I consider you test not to get worried about that all through the match. But with any luck ,, we can just get back again to usual.”

The league will use recreation pucks from the 2019-20 season as it troubleshoots the tracking pucks.