The Bruins are expected to get some reinforcements in their bottom-six grouping this week.
After Team Canada was bounced from the World Junior Championship in Sweden in stunning fashion on Tuesday, Bruins center Matt Poitras is expected to rejoin the team in Boston — with a return to the lineup potentially set for this weekend.
“I think he gets back [Wednesday], and then he starts to assimilate back into the group,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont Tuesday morning. “How soon he plays again, that’s up for discussion, because it just happened.”
Poitras, who the Bruins loaned to join Team Canada starting on Dec. 18 for the annual international tournament, recorded four points (two goals, two assists) in five total games with his home country before they were defeated by Czechia, 3-2, in the quarterfinals.
It was a crushing loss for Poitras and Team Canada, with Czechia scoring the game-winning tally off a deflection with just 11 seconds to go in regulation.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world. I feel like we left so much on the table,” Poitras told TSN’s Mark Masters after the loss. “We had a great team. It’s really frustrating. I don’t know, it’s just the worst feeling in the world. I felt like I was gripping my stick too tight and, I don’t know, I couldn’t find the back of the net. So, I don’t know, it sucks. I feel like I let some of these guys down, let [the] country down. I feel like that.”
But last month, Bruins GM Don Sweeney said he believed a break from NHL competition might have been just what Poitras needed to settle back into a rhythm. He scored just one goal over his last 16 games with Boston, averaging 13:19 of ice time per contest.
“I think [this] gets him to have a chance mentally and physically to have a little bit of a reset, go against and play against your peer group,” Sweeney said. “Now again, it’s high expectations and high-leverage pressure situations that he’s now been thrust into at the highest level you can possibly play at. He should handle that well.
“He should take those things that happened in our locker room and impart them on his new teammates and lead from the front and that’s what we’re hoping for. And he’ll come back and reinsert himself with us.”
Even with Team Canada’s sudden exit, Poitras’ playmaking and poise with the puck will be welcomed by Boston whenever he does return to the ice.
However, there might need to be some shuffling in Boston’s lineup to accommodate the young pivot.
Georgii Merkulov was called up from Providence last week to slot in on the bottom-six grouping, but could be in line for a trek back to the AHL after posting zero points in his first three games.
Montgomery might also be inclined to keep a reworked third line of James van Riemsdyk, Trent Frederic, and Danton Heinen together for a bit longer, especially after that trio combined for three goals in Boston’s 4-1 win over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
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