BRIGHTON -- The Bruins didn’t hold practice on Monday as they rested after back-to-back games last weekend to close out the regular season, but they did get another player back into the fold for a playoff return. Riley Nash (upper body) returned to the ice to skate with the Bruins training staff on Monday morning, and appears to be on the road to a recovery after taking a Torey Krug blast to the side to the head that ended up taking 40-plus stitches to close up.
So now Nash, Rick Nash (concussion) and Sean Kuraly (lower body) are all skating again with the Bruins ahead of Thursday night’s Game 1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they’ll get a couple of good days of practice in before Bruce Cassidy makes a decision on them.
“They’re all working that way. You know, we’ve got a couple days to practice and see where they all, kind of, get to,” said Nash. “Hopefully…hopefully they’ll all be available. Well, we know Brandon [Carlo] is not.”
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Nash and Kuraly were both close to returning last weekend in the Sunday game against the Florida Panthers, so it stands to reason they’d both be reading for duty in a Game 1 scenario at TD Garden on Thursday night. The 21-year-old Carlo clearly won’t be playing in these playoffs due to the fractured left ankle suffered just a couple of weeks in a freak play in the corner, and the timetable for him following successful surgery would be in the 2-3 month range.
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“Carlo was here [at the Garden…on Saturday. [He’s] doing much better, up and around. Obviously, the recovery is a long one,” said Sweeney. “Surgery went well. We’ll miss Brandon. He was a big part of our hockey club. The swelling was such that we wanted to make sure there wasn’t any further damage, going through an MRI, making sure the doctor felt very comfortable before we just sort of disclosed it was a simple procedure and didn’t want any surprises.”
It would be interesting to see what Bruce Cassidy will do if Nash, Nash and Kuraly are all ready to go for Game 1 on Thursday night, and that could mean some very good players potentially getting kicked upstairs as healthy scratches to start the postseason.