Bruins back to square one with Ondrej Kase
Injured in the penultimate game of the regular season after missing nearly four months, injured winger Ondrej Kase is seemingly back at the bottom of the hill based on the latest update from Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.
“Upper-body, nothing’s changed there,” Cassidy said. “Not skating with us, not skating with the taxi squad.
“Until we have something more, that’s how he’ll be classified. He will not be available for Game 1, and we’ll just see where he goes from there. With him this year, it’s been a lot of wait and see, and that’s what we’re back to again.”
As is often the case with Kase (especially in Boston), if it wasn’t for bad luck, he’d have none. And this latest setback is no exception, as Cassidy’s Thursday update comes just a couple of days after the B’s coach said that they believed that Kase’s exit on Monday night was related to conditioning issues and not the concussion woes that have plagued his career.
If conditioning was indeed the problem, you would’ve assumed that he’d be back on the ice in some fashion — by himself, with the taxi squad, or with the full team — and that obviously did not happen Thursday. And at this point, it seems almost obvious that Kase, who is a restricted free agent at the year’s end, has played his final game this season.
The 25-year-old Kase appeared in three games this season (and failed to finish two of them), and has totaled five assists in 20 total games with the Black and Gold since coming from Anaheim prior to the 2020 trade deadline.
The good news for the Bruins? Charlie Coyle, who was injured during the B’s May 4 overtime loss to the Devils, returned to practice and skated on the right wing of Boston’s third line with Sean Kuraly and Nick Ritchie.
Boston will open their first-round series with the Capitals on Saturday night at Capital One Arena.
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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
