Smith Back at Practice, Eyeing Saturday Return to Game Action

BOSTON - Craig Smith admits he has been a bit "irritated" by the Bruins' unusual schedule to start the 2021-22 campaign. The long gaps between games have hindered the club's ability to get into groove, particularly with so many new faces in the lineup this season.
For Smith, however, there has been a silver lining to all the downtime.
The 32-year-old has been battling a nagging injury since the opening days of the season and has twice sat out for a stretch of multiple games - missing three in late October followed by this past weekend's back-to-back against the Devils and Canadiens. But with five full days between Sunday's win over Montreal and Saturday's upcoming tilt in Philadelphia, it appears those might be all the games Smith has to miss.

"I was irritated with the breaks with the way our season was scheduled at the beginning, but now looking back I guess it kind of worked out, a little time to get ready and get back," Smith said after skating as a full participant during Wednesday's practice at Warrior Ice Arena.
"Excited to get back out there. It's been a lot of time off, so it's nice to get a full day in with the guys and have fun out there…as far as I know, I'm ready to go. Felt great today."
Smith said he is aiming for a return to Boston's lineup against the Flyers, which aligns with what Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy has been told by the club's medical staff.
"I was told that that was the plan to get him ready and should be in for Saturday," said Cassidy. "Full practice with us, obviously, is a good thing. If he wakes up [on Thursday] with no lingering effects, that helps us a lot. Even though we're off [with no practice], it will probably help him recover. I'll have a much better idea Friday when he walks through the door."
Cassidy noted that Smith has been hampered by the lingering injury, which has contributed to a slow offensive start that has the winger without a point through eight games.
"He tried to play through it, and it didn't work out," said Cassidy. "The trainers said, 'Listen, we respect you that you want to play through it but let's get you ready…get you to 100 percent so you can just play the game and not worry about managing yourself out there.'"
Smith said that his goal now is to get ahead of any further issues and avoid having to deal with something for the remainder of the season.
"It's part of the gig. You've got to do your best to manage it and get right to move forward," said Smith. "Just take it day by day, move forward, just one of those things you have to go through, get it right, and you move forward and try to do the little things to make sure you're getting on top of things…tough to go down right at the beginning [of the season]."

With Smith out of the lineup, Cassidy opted to take a look at Nick Foligno on the right side of Boston's second line with Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle, a trio he was impressed with over the weekend and one that he believes could stick together.
"I thought Foligno did a super job with that line the other night, in terms of getting to the net. He's automatically going there," said Cassidy. "Taylor's a guy who likes to have the puck in the O-zone so he'll need someone to go to the net and Charlie's used to having it. Smitty's a shooter, so it might be that Foligno adds an element, more of a net presence."
As such, Cassidy - as he did at times before Smith went down - will likely try Smith with Erik Haula and Jake DeBrusk for the time being as he continues to find the right combinations with his bottom six.
"It has disrupted a bit of the chemistry and we've moved Jake around between Haula and [Tomas] Nosek, just looking for a spark the other night. We got a goal…there is some newness. [Anton] Blidh is relatively new as well even though he's been with us forever. He didn't play a lot. He's been hurt. Nosek's new. Haula's new.
"There's still a little bit of that experimentation. Even [Curtis] Lazar, he was only here for six weeks [last season]."

Reilly to Return

After sitting out the last two games as a healthy scratch, Mike Reilly is expected to be back in the lineup on Saturday night in Philadelphia. Cassidy said he told the blue liner that his stint in the press box was not likely to last very long.
"He'll go back in Saturday," said Cassidy. "I told Mike that that it wouldn't be long term up there, depends on how the team responds, etcetera. But he's a part of our D corps that we need to play well. That was one way to kind of send a message and stick with it because I thought their group was good on Saturday. It's not a long-term thing."
Cassidy also said that Jakub Zboril will remain in the lineup after a strong showing over the weekend and could shift over to play to the right side.
"Yeah, he's played right, he's practiced right," said Cassidy, who did not reveal which blue liner might be the odd man out on Saturday. "Him and Johnny Moore…both were told, 'Hey you've got to work on the right side.' If a righty went out, a lefty has to go in, or if we made a decision that we didn't like the play of a righty - we don't want it to be a righty gets hurt, ok we have to go to Providence to replace him. That's been in their ear from training camp."

Practice Makes Perfect

The Bruins are in the midst of yet another lull in the schedule with their next game not until Saturday night in Philadelphia. Boston practiced the last two days after taking Monday off and will stay away from the rink again on Thursday before returning to Warrior Ice Arena on Friday morning to prep for the Flyers.
"When we saw the schedule, we figured we'd probably use [this week] for some sort of rest even though we haven't played a ton - the last week was a busy week for us," said Cassidy. "Or revisit some details, that's what we did [on Tuesday] and today a little bit. We had a good week of hockey - obviously not the third period against Edmonton. We all acknowledged that and tried to move and be better. I thought we were [this past] weekend."

Into the Holiday Spirit

The time off this week also allowed the Bruins to get in some community work as they took part in the club's annual holiday toy shopping event on Wednesday. The tradition, which provides gifts for children spending the holidays at Boston-area hospitals, was missed last year due to the pandemic.
"It means a lot," said Patrice Bergeron, who helps spearhead the event. "Obviously we're trying to put a smile on kids' faces around Christmastime. I think it's something as professional athletes we have to do. It's important for us to give back to the community. It's always a pleasure to be here and have a little fun picking up some gifts for the kids."