Need to Know: Bruins at Blues

ST. LOUIS – The Bruins will close out their four-game, eight-day road trip on Saturday night with a matchup against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. Boston, which has dropped the first three games of the voyage – all in overtime or the shootout – will be searching for its first win and a respectable five-point trip.

“If we can win tonight, it could turn out to be five out of eight points. It’s not a terrible road trip if we do that,” said St. Louis native Trent Frederic, who added that he’ll have a large contingent of friends and family in the building. “Kind of leave a good taste in your mouth if you do that, so our emphasis is to start well and try to get those two points.”

Coach Jim Montgomery said that the Bruins must remain focused on the task at hand, which can be difficult at the end of a week-long trip.

“You’ve been on the road, this is the [eighth] day, it’s your fourth game. Sometimes your focus goes back, ‘I can’t wait to get home,’” said Montgomery. “Our focus needs to be in the present, which is a huge part of our process.”

Here’s everything else you need to know ahead of the 8 p.m. ET puck drop on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub:

Ullmark Hits the Ice

After leaving Tuesday’s game in Arizona following a save in overtime, Linus Ullmark was back on the ice for morning skate in St. Louis, an encouraging development given how dire the situation looked when he was injured against the Coyotes.

“Really good sign,” said Montgomery. “He’s progressing faster than we anticipated. It’s his first day on the ice so he’s starting his process towards being a player again.”

Ullmark, while not completely satisfied with the way he felt on the ice, was pleased to be back with his teammates so quickly.

“It felt better, I would say…it didn’t feel as bad as I expected, but also didn’t feel as good as I wanted to,” said Ullmark. “It’s kind of hard to pick and choose. There wasn’t a lot of high-speed scoring chances…just doing some things at the end to see how it felt, but pleased for now, at least.

“We’ll take it day by day. There’s nothing wrong with playing through some aches and pains and bruises as long as you’re not stupid and lie to yourself that you’re fine but you’re injured."

The netminder acknowledged that in the moment – after he reached with his glove to make a save and crumpled in his crease – that something was not right.

“Shoot,” Ullmark said when asked what his reaction was at the time. “I recognized the pain from some stuff that I’ve done in the past, so I knew it was pretty severe at the time, but I didn’t know how severe. Also, you feel guilty. Your conscience is not in the right place…that you put your partner in that position and your team in that position, so it’s never a situation that you’re happy with it.”

Ullmark said that all of the medical imaging came back clean.

“Everything looked good on the images, which is nice,” said Ullmark. “You never want an MRI done and see that something is torn or it’s a severe injury. I was very happy with that. We’ll build off of it and do what we need to do moving forward.

“The athletic trainers that we have and [physical therapists] and doctors, I love every single one of them and I trust every single one of them,” said Ullmark. “I feel like we can really build off of this and get stronger.”

Wotherspoon Gaining Confidence

Entering the season, Parker Wotherspoon was well down the B’s defense depth chart.

But after injuries – and a suspension to Charlie McAvoy – began to decimate the defense corps back in early November, the 26-year-old got the call to the big club. His performance across that three-game stint impressed the Bruins brass enough for a second call-up in mid-December – a stint that has not yet come to an end.

Wotherspoon has played 11 games since Dec. 15 and provided dependability and grit, while becoming an important part of the B’s penalty kill.

“I see a player that is getting very comfortable in our lineup,” said Montgomery. “He does play a lot of minutes. It’s a wonderful opportunity for him, [Mason] Lohrei, players that have probably averaged between 14 and 17 to get toward the 20-minute mark just because we’ve got a couple of injuries back there.

“I love his confidence because you can tell he hangs on to pucks, he’s looking to make plays. That’s what you want. You want players to want to make plays.”

The blue liner, who had played just 12 NHL games (all with the Islanders in 2022-23) before this season, believes that his success is as simple as gaining more experience.

“The more games I play, the more comfortable I’ll get,” said Wotherspoon. “Just keeping it simple is my game. When I see it, I just move [the puck], simple as that…just being around the guys and the organization and more used to the system has helped a ton, just gains confidence.”

Wotherspoon has averaged 2:46 of shorthanded time on ice, which ranks fifth on the Bruins behind Derek Forbort (3:34), Brandon Carlo (3:28), Hampus Lindholm (2:52), and Charlie Coyle (2:51).

“I take great pride in being a defensive defenseman, too, and that’s a big part of it,” said Wotherspoon. “Playing aggressively and blocked shots, that’s what I like to do.”

Opposing View

The Blues (21-18-1, 43 points) are just two points back of Edmonton and Seattle for the West’s second wild card spot. St. Louis, which fired coach Craig Berube and replaced him with Drew Bannister in mid-December, has won six of its last 10 and is coming off a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

Robert Thomas paces the Blues with 16 goals and 43 points in 40 games, while Pavel Buchnevich (13-19—32) and Jordan Kyrou (12-18—30), who registered a hat trick against New York, have also hit the 30-point plateau.

Kevin Hayes (9-10—19) and old friend Torey Krug (1-18—19) round out the team’s top five scorers.

Jordan Binnington (14-11-1, 3.01 GAA, .907 save %) is expected to get the call between the pipes for the Blues.

Wait, There’s More

• Pavel Zacha did not take part in the morning skate due to illness but is a possibility to play against the Blues on Saturday night. “Zacha is available tonight, a little under the weather this morning. He’ll be a gametime decision,” said Montgomery. “Just kept him home [at the hotel] to get more rest.”
• Montgomery on Jesper Boqvist’s performance during his latest recall: “A player with a lot more confidence, especially with the puck, using his speed to create time and space. He’s made some really good entries. Want him to continue to build on building the team game when the plays aren’t there by hanging on to pucks and then also winning 50/50 battles. That’s a big difference between the American Hockey League and the NHL is how many pucks you come up with in 50/50 battles.”
• Montgomery on the B’s penalty troubles this season: “Today we showed some clips of penalties that aren’t acceptable versus ones that are. We don’t mind hard, physical penalties, we don’t mind penalties where you’re defending your own net. We don’t like penalties that are at the opposition’s goal line or blue line where we’re reaching and not working back above pucks.”