While the Bruins were laying a rare home-ice egg to the Predators, TSN’s Darren Dreger was busy accusing the Bruins of manipulating the NHL’s salary cap.

Namely when it comes to the health of Taylor Hall and his $6 million cap hit that currently sits on the long-term injured reserve.

“We know, according to reports and video, that Hall has been skating with the Bruins for several days now. Sources say that he feels he is ready,” Dreger said on the latest ‘Insider Trading’ segment. “The problem is the Bruins don’t have the cap space to activate Hall. Now the NHL playoffs are less than three weeks away so it’s going to be interesting to see how the Bruins manage this situation or, if like the Tampa Bay Lightning a few years ago, they try and stretch it out until the start of the postseason so it’s something that I’m sure other clubs are paying attention to as well.”

That, according to Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, is simply not true.

• “The only thing I can say is that I know that he’s not cleared,” Montgomery said following the 2-1 defeat on Garden ice. “That’s what I know.

  “So that report, to me, is false.”

  Of course, Montgomery and the Bruins aren’t going to outright say that they are circumventing the cap. We all know that. And even if Dreger did his best to dance around suggesting that the Bruins are doing what they can to circumvent the cap ahead of the postseason (where teams are free to be over the cap), the implication was certainly there. We all know that.

  What we don’t know, however, is what the Bruins would gain by gaming the system, as Dreger insinuated.

• 

  VANCOUVER, CANADA – FEBRUARY 25: Taylor Hall #71 of the Boston Bruins skates with the puck ahead of Andrei Kuzmenko #96 of the Vancouver Canucks during the second period of their NHL game at Rogers Arena on February 25, 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Derek Cain/Getty Images)

• The trade deadline has come and gone, so there’s no sense in the Bruins ‘banking’ cap space away for a big move. (You also can’t do that when you put money on the long-term injured reserve, but again, that doesn’t matter in this particular situation.) There’s also no paying off the upcoming bonus overage money by doing so, as ‘LTIR’ money is not available to pay out end-of-year bonuses. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney essentially acknowledged as much when the Bruins placed Hall on LTIR and added Tyler Bertuzzi ahead of the deadline. I think his exact words were, “Well, yeah, that basically took care of that.” (He didn’t mean it in a pleasant way.)

  Oh, and perhaps most of all, the Bruins don’t need to keep Hall on long-term injured reserve to become cap compliant, especially with winger Nick Foligno ($3.8 million) and defenseman Derek Forbort ($3 million) all also on the shelf and expected to miss the remainder of the regular season.

  PuckPedia even confirmed as much in the wake of Dreger’s reporting.

• If the #NHLBruins wanted to activate Taylor Hall from LTIR, they could place Foligno on LTIR, and be left with 66K cap space remaining. https://t.co/Ed4wqn4U61

  — PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) March 28, 2023

• 

  Jan 7, 2023; San Jose, California, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Taylor Hall (71) controls the puck against San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl (48) during the first period at SAP Center at San Jose. (Neville E. Guard/USA TODAY Sports)

• And perhaps most notably, there’s truly nothing to be gained from holding Hall out of action.

  With the Bruins’ top-six forward grouping set, a healthy Bruins team is by all means certain to feature Hall and Bertuzzi as Charlie Coyle’s wingers on the Black and Gold’s third line.

  You don’t think the Bruins would want to get a look at that, especially given the fact that Hall and Bertuzzi have never been in the same lineup, ahead of a best-of-seven series? Looking at it from that view alone, this isn’t remotely comparable to Nikita Kucherov rejoining his Bolts’ linemates in 2021.

  The Bruins want — actually need, even — to know if this combo works, and it’d be awesome to figure that out before the stakes raise in the playoffs. The last thing the best regular-season team in Bruins history (and maybe even NHL history) wants to do is tinker with their lines in the postseason, one would think.

• 

  Nov 29, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Taylor Hall (71) reacts after scoring a goal during the first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

• The Bruins, meanwhile, have refused to put a timeline on Hall’s return to action. They’ve noted his progress at various points, but they’ve consistently referred to it as ‘checking boxes’ and nothing more.

  And though Hall has been practicing with his teammates in recent days, he’s still yet to ditch the non-contact jersey worn by injured players.

  This, I gotta admit, would be one elaborate lie on the part of the Bruins. And for no real reason when you actually sit and think about it.

  Or, in other words, no, there’s no real reason to believe that he is indeed ready.

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