When the Bruins get back to it on Saturday, they'll have a different look up front after coach Bruce Cassidy opted to make some alterations to his forward lines for Friday's practice. Noting that it's the first time since the early days of the season that the Bruins will have their 12 top forwards together, Boston's bench boss said it's an opportunity to try to kickstart the B's offensive game.
Among the most notable changes to the group was shifting David Pastrnak down to play alongside Taylor Hall with Erik Haula manning the middle. Craig Smith, meanwhile, bumped up to skate with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
"I think maybe since the first day or second day of the season, early on anyway, I think it's the first time we've had that group of 12 forwards together," said Cassidy. "I think Smitty went out fairly early, tried to play through some stuff, [Nick] Foligno went out, obviously some COVID along the way, suspension, so some different things happened. Now they're back.
"Charlie Coyle was the only one - I spoke to him this morning, he's got to get some reps under him. But he feels pretty good. We decided to take a look knowing that there's some pieces that can slide back fairly easily."
Cassidy believes that a trio featuring Hall and Pastrnak on the wings has the potential to deliver with significant pace off the rush, while noting that they must also develop offense in other ways, particularly off the cycle.
"They both have high-end speed, they can make plays at high-end speed so they're gonna be able to keep up with one another," said Cassidy. "They're both very good off the rush. Pasta's built his cycle game. He had to playing with Bergy and March. Teams defend them differently over the years where they're not gonna let them get an odd-man rush, so he's had to build that in.
"Taylor that's still a work in progress, he's got to learn to play in tight areas and off the shot, etcetera. That's where those guys are gonna have to make sure they bear down, not just be a one and done line…at the end of the day, they will hopefully transition well, that's part of it.
"Right now, it's January, let's see if we can get them going and then build in the other parts that need to be built in."
The alterations also include flipping centermen with Haula moving up between Hall and Pastrnak and Coyle sliding down to play with Jake DeBrusk and Nick Foligno.
"When Bergy's in the middle with those high-end wingers, he tends to get to the front of the net for them and then get out when need be, so that will be the challenge for Haula," said Cassidy. "The Hall and Coyle [combination] didn't work out as well as we would've liked. Doesn't mean we're going to abandon it for good, it's still early in the season.
"At the same token, we need to try a few other things along the way here. The Coyle-DeBrusk partnership at times over the years has been good. We're looking at that as well…Charlie's been really good for us. Maybe back in his natural third line will give us better balance. We won't know until we get playing but that's a little bit of what we're thinking."
In the end, Cassidy's hope is that the Bruins can reset and begin anew as they begin a frantic stretch of 56 games through the end of the regular season on April 29.
"Some of it just about getting some guys going," said Cassidy. "I don't want to call this the second half, but a bit of a reset. There's some players there who moved around. Hopefully it helps their game to be with maybe a different duo or whatnot.
"We'll see how it plays out knowing that you can always go back to what you count on before. But we're like everyone else, we're trying to build scoring throughout the lineup. Maybe this will get some guys jumpstarted."
