Having lost two straight contests, plus dropping four of their last five while watching their home record crash to 2-4-1 on the season, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has decided to give his line-up a bit of a shake-up today.
As the Bruins welcomed back center David Krejci (concussion) and defenseman Johnny Boychuk (fractured forearm) to non-contact practice at Ristuccia Memorial Arena this morning, Julien also shuffled-up the lines by swapping forwards Michael Ryder and Shawn Thornton to each others' respective lines.
Ryder, lined with center Gregory Campbell and Brad Marchand on the Bruins' fourth-line today, has four goals on the season which ties him for this best on the team in 14 games. And despite a debacle of a '09-10 NHL season, Ryder is off to the best start of his tenure in Boston.
""I wanted to come into camp in good shape and get off to a good start, and I think I did that. Last year was a disappointment for me personally and a lot of the other guys, and a team as a whole," Ryder said today after practice, donning the maroon fourth-line jersey. "We wanted to be better and get off to a good start and we did that.
"There are going to ups-and-downs of the season," added Ryder. "It's just a matter of us getting back to the basics and sometimes you get away from that and I think that's what we're doing right now."
Ryder's 10 points also places him with the third-most in Boston through the early stages of this hockey season, but has been held pointless in his last two. And over that span, Ryder has sipped to a team-low minus-3 rating.
Boston has just one goal in their last two games; this after netting 20 in their previous five.
"There are going to ups-and-downs of the season." said Michael Ryder. "It's just a matter of us getting back to the basics and sometimes you get away from that and I think that's what we're doing right now."
"We played a few games back -- against St. Louis we played a little bit together, and at the end of games we played together sometimes. We have a little bit of a feel for a each other so I don't think it's going to be that hard for us to get used to each other."
Ryder, unfortunately, has been no stranger to scrutiny the last year or so in Boston. His name is one of the first names out of peoples' mouths when the talks of salary cap-cutting comes up. He has already played a handful of times with the fourth-line and looks to continue to contribute regardless of where he's playing.
"We played a few games back -- against St. Louis we played a little bit together -- and at the end of games we played together sometimes. We have a little bit of a feel for a each other so I don't think it's going to be that hard for us to get used to each other." he said. ""Those guys [Campbell, Marchand] are playing really well so hopefully I can fit right in there."
While dropping Ryder to the fourth line may provide a spark under No. 73's butt, promoting Shawn Thornton -- who has two goals in his last five games -- to the third-line with Tyler Seguin and Daniel Paille probably isn't the answer. Thonrton-Campbell-Marchand has been the one constant on this up-and-down Bruins team. They have been doing all the little things right: providing the aggressive forecheck that has been lacking within this club; never taking a shift off; pitching-in offensively which is just an added bonus.
So splitting the trio up may not be the way to go going forward.
""It's something I did for today. When you haven't wont too many games lately. It's unfortunate because we feel like we're maybe a little handcuffed. We're short in the middle [Krecji, Savard] and there's not a ton of options," said head coach Claude Julien today after practice in regards to the shake-up and depleted line-up. "And today we just made that little change there -- Ryder and Thornton -- whether it stays like that tomorrow, or not, or whether I start with it and change? I don't know. I think it's just is trying to feel our way though, to find something that's going to spark our offense a little bit more.
The timetable for Krejci's could be as early as this weekend. But with the sensitivity of concussions, the exact date is still unknown. He was cleared today for non-contact drills, so hopefully the next step forward to his return is just around the corner.
Until then, Julien, and the Bruins, need to get back to basics, shake things up, and start playing like they had just a couple of weeks ago.
"Find our rhythm and confidence again and the execution that was giving us success."
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