It could be a long morning for the Bruins.
Or their fans, anyway.
With the team off on Wednesday and in Las Vegas for Thursday’s head-to-head with the Golden Knights, barring something special from the club, the earliest you’ll hear an update from the club on goaltender Linus Ullmark and center Matt Poitras, both injured in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the Coyotes, is sometime around 11:30 a.m. in Vegas. (That’s 2:30 p.m. in Boston, by the way.)
And assuming that this remains the status quo and that the coach doesn’t speak before his team’s morning skate, you’re probably talking about 3:30 p.m. ‘Hub’ time until you hear the first update on their health from B’s coach Jim Montgomery.
Oh, boy, could that feel like an eternity.
Sep 24, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Brandon Bussi (30) waits for play to begin against the New York Rangers during the second period at TD Garden. (Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports)
Beginning in goal, the general belief seems to be that Brandon Bussi will be the first man up, as most project him as the No. 3 goaltender on the organizational depth chart.
It helps that Bussi has already been recalled by the Bruins once this season (the Bruins summoned him from Providence when Jeremy Swayman dealt with an illness), and that the team recalled him from Providence for the final game of the regular season last season.
P-Bruins insider Mark Divver also shared that his belief was that Bussi would catch a flight to Vegas later on Wednesday to join the Bruins for Thursday’s game, too.
Brandon Bussi gets some work in this morning in Providence. Expect him to catch a flight to Vegas later today to meet up with Bruins pic.twitter.com/4LI5snlibC
— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) January 10, 2024
Sep 24, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Brandon Bussi (30) waits for play to begin during the second period against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. (Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports)
An AHL All-Star a season ago, the 2023-24 season has come with its fair share of adversity for the 6-foot-5 Bussi thus far, with a 10-6-3 record and .901 save percentage through 20 appearances.
But if you’re looking for positives within a trying year, Bussi is projected for an NHL recall on the heels of three straight wins with Providence, including a 30-of-33 performance (and with stops on all six shootout attempts) in his last outing on Jan. 6 against Springfield.
Bussi, who was signed by the B’s as a college free agent back in 2022 following a strong collegiate career at Western Michigan, has posted a 35-13-7 record with a .915 save percentage and 2.60 goals against average in 57 games with the P-Bruins over the last three seasons.
Sep 26, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins goaltender Michael DiPietro (80) looks for the puck during the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)
But if Bussi is not the guy — be it on the original recall or if this is a longer term absence for Ullmark and his performance isn’t up to snuff — the Bruins also have Michael DiPietro waiting in the wings as a potential recall option for Montgomery’s club.
Acquired in the 2022 trade that sent Jack Studnicka to the Canucks, the 24-year-old DiPietro has actually been the better of the two goalies in Providence this year from a statistical standpoint, with a team-best .912 save percentage and 2.63 goals against average through 14 games.
DiPietro stopped 26-of-29 in a Jan. 7 win over the Thunderbirds in his last outing, has also rattled off victories in seven of his last nine games for the P-Bruins. Over that stretch, DiPietro has posted a .910 save percentage, and allowed more than three goals on just one occasion.
But unlike Bussi, DiPietro is waiver-eligible, and the Bruins may not want to run the risk of having to potentially expose DiPietro to the rest of the league for free given the budding success story he’s looking like and with so many teams looking for goaltending help.
Oct 26, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Jesper Boqvist (70) shoots the puck while Anaheim Ducks center Sam Carrick (39) defends during the first period at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)
Up front, the Bruins may feel as if they already have their in-house replacement in the event of a Poitras absence with Jesper Boqvist still with the club and coming off a goal in his last outing.
A do-it-all type for the Bruins in the sense that he can play both center and wing, Boqvist has spent the last few games as the Black and Gold’s fourth-line center, but again, he’s coming off what was definitely his best game of the season Tuesday night in Arizona, with a goal and a season-high 11:50 of time on ice.
The Bruins could simply keep Boqvist in that elevated role until Poitras is back, be it as a center or a winger, and Boqvist has plenty of experience there, with 29 goals and 56 points in 194 games of NHL work between the Bruins and Devils since the start of the 2019-20 season.
Dec 30, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Georgii Merkulov (42) carries the puck in his first NHL game during the first period against the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports)
But if the Bruins want to go with a little more offensive upside, they could always make the call back to Providence and bring Georgii Merkulov up for another look with the NHL club.
Given a four-game run with the NHL club with Poitras at the 2024 World Juniors, Merkulov’s original run with the Bruins didn’t really tell us much of anything in regards to his ceiling, as the Bruins utilized him in a fourth-line role for the most part, including a season-low 6:23 in his final appearance of the recall.
Overall, the four-game NHL sample for Merkulov featured a plus-1 rating, three shots, two hits, four blocks, and losses in 22 of his 28 battles at the dot.
But Merkulov has responded to his demotion back to the minors about as well as you could’ve hoped, with three assists in two games since his return to Providence.
🎥 Check out how the team surprised Georgii Merkulov with his All-Star selection! pic.twitter.com/ZtwAAGkb7n
— Providence Bruins (@AHLBruins) January 10, 2024The 23-year-old Merkulov has totaled 14 goals and 33 points through 33 games in the AHL this season, and was named to the 2024 AHL All-Star Game this week.
Sep 24, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins right wing Fabian Lysell (23) blocks a pass during the third period against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. (Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports)
If the Bruins want some more speed and skill, Fabian Lysell could also be an option for the club.
Called out by P-Bruins head coach Ryan Mougenel last month, and with Mougenel stressing the need for the 2021 first-round pick to ‘buy in’ to what the team is asking out of him, Lysell has responded pretty much exactly how the B’s could have hoped. In eight games since that callout, Lysell has put up three goals and nine points, and is currently riding a six-game point streak.
Lysell also has experiencing playing on a line with Boqvist in Providence, too, which could be of some appeal to the Bruins if Boqvist is to skate in an elevated role if Poitras is out of action. (The P-Bruins typically stuck a big-bodied wing to the left of the Boqvist-Lysell combo, and the Bruins have multiple options there, from James van Riemsdyk to Trent Frederic.)
Overall, the 20-year-old Lysell has put up 10 goals and 26 points through 31 AHL games this season.
Sep 24, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Anthony Richard (90) skates against the New York Rangers during the first period at TD Garden. (Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports)
But if the Bruins want a more ‘veteran’ type — but a veteran type who has some flexible and offensive skills in his stick — Anthony Richard could be an option for the club.
In his first year with the organization, the 5-foot-10 Richard has put up 14 goals and 28 points through 31 games with Providence. He’s also in the midst of a white-hot run, with nine goals and 13 points and four multi-point performances over his last seven games with the P-Bruins.
Richard also has 15 games of NHL experience between Nashville and Montreal, and certainly made the most of his NHL opportunity during a 13-game run with the Canadiens last year.
On the board with three goals and five points, along with 13 shots on goal and 25 hits, over the course of that 13-game run with Montreal, the 5-foot-10 wing’s best stretch over that sample came in a two-game that saw him score the game-winning goal over the Penguins on Mar. 14 before coming through with a one-goal and two-point effort against the Panthers just two days later.
