BOSTON \u2013\u2013 The Boston Bruins are hosting the New York Rangers for a Black Friday matinee matchup on Friday at TD Garden.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s depth will be tested as they take the ice for the 1 p.m. puck drop without a handful of their veteran regulars.<\/p>\n
David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha will not play, head coach Marco Sturm said. They are both dealing with injuries and are listed as day-to-day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very easy because we\u2019ve done it before. I just told the group, I am not worried at all because we\u2019ve done it as a group before with a lot of guys out,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cAs long as we play with our structure \u2013 especially without the puck \u2013 we will be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgii Merkulov was recalled from Providence and will be in the lineup against the Rangers. The 25-year-old forward has posted 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in 17 AHL games this season. Merkulov has played a total of 10 NHL games with the Bruins over the past two seasons, following his signing as a free agent with the team in 2022.<\/p>\n
Casey Mittelstadt will make his return on Friday. The forward last played on Nov. 6 and had been dealing with a lower-body injury since. Mittelstadt had nine points (four goals, five assists) in 15 games before getting hurt. Riley Tufte is also reentering the lineup to fill a bottom-six role.<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t practice with the group yet, but because we\u2019re short today, Zacha and David will be out. That is why we need him,\u201d Sturm said of Mittelstadt.\u200b<\/p>\n
The other roster transactions included Michael Callahan getting assigned to Providence, and Mat\u011bj Bl\u00fcmel was placed on long-term injured reserve after leaving Wednesday’s game in the first period.<\/p>\n
\u200bFriday marks the first of three meetings between the Bruins and Rangers this regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a tough start, but they\u2019ve been pretty good as of late. Very good on the road. Slowly getting their guys back, too,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cWe know how they are, and it\u2019s always a challenge. It\u2019s a nice thing to play the Rangers as a rivalry, especially at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013\u2013 The Boston Bruins are hosting the New York Rangers for a Black Friday matinee matchup on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-319287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}