Grzelcyk on the Mend After Offseason Surgery

BOSTON - Matt Grzelcyk is on the mend.
Despite not being on the ice with his teammates during the first practice session of training camp on Thursday morning, the blue liner did hit the rink for a solo skate beforehand as he progresses in his rehab from offseason shoulder surgery.
Grzelcyk underwent a right shoulder open stabilization procedure on June 3 and was expected to have a recovery time of approximately five months, which would take him through to early November.

"It's just exciting to get back out there and do a little bit more than I was able to the first few months," said Grzelcyk. "Having [fellow injured players] Charlie [McAvoy] and [Brad Marchand] around made the process a little easier this time around."
The 28-year-old had a similar procedure on his other shoulder eight years ago while he was at Boston University, an experience that he believes also contributed to helping him manage the recovery more efficiently during this rehab period.
"Feels quicker than I expected," said Grzelcyk. "It just felt pretty good right away. I had to wear the sling for about two weeks. I had my other one done about eight years ago now, so I kind of knew what to expect and it felt a lot better this time around."
While he only began lightly shooting pucks on Monday, Grzelcyk said he can already notice a difference in mobility and comfort.
"I think my range of motion is better now, I don't know. Obviously, we're working on a lot and just little things like sleeping, waking up in the morning it's not as stiff," said Grzelcyk. "It's kind of a long few months there at the end of last year. So just happy to feel a little bit more like myself. Still have kind of a long ways to go but light's at the end of the tunnel."
Grzelcyk suffered the original injury in January during a home game against the Winnipeg Jets when he was hit hard into the boards from behind by Pierre-Luc Dubois. The defenseman battled through the ailment for the remainder of the season, occasionally missing games and practices to manage the pain.
"It was tough. But we're going for it, it seems like every year, and you obviously do anything to be out on the ice," said Grzelcyk. "It's just unfortunate that you kind of feel like you're not able to give everything you can sometimes, but the medical staff did a great job of, not only are you in a good place physically, but mentally as well, and give me some goals to hit along the way and making sure that I'm staying in a good mind frame mentally. I can't thank them enough, for sure. They've been huge for me this summer."

Despite the lingering effects of the injury, which hampered him greatly towards the end of the year, Grzelcyk has no regrets about pushing through the pain.
"It was torn enough that either do [the surgery] right then or at the start of the season, knowing that [the shoulder] was going to come out a couple of times - it was inevitable," said Grzelcyk "But I would do that all over again for sure, just to be back on the ice with the guys.
"Anything you can do to join them. Not wanting to give up; that was my mindset and, unfortunately, just kind of snowballed by the end…you don't have as much time to recover in the playoffsso it got tough."
The 5-foot-9, 178-pounder said he has already spoken with new coach Jim Montgomery about ways to better protect himself, particularly when it comes to going back to retrieve pucks in the defensive zone.
"Just seeing it on video. I met with Monty a couple times, just kind of showing me to pick and choose my battles a little bit," said Grzelcyk. "You always want to compete. At the same time, you have to be smart about things, too. Just knowing when to want to jump in the corner at the right time or when to take a hit to make a play, that's what you're always taught as a kid, so that will never change.
"But there are definitely some areas they can just be more mindful of going back on pucks. I think that's kind of what happened for me. I put myself in a bad position, so I definitely have some learning to do."
Grzelcyk has also been working alongside new assistant coach John Gruden - who was his U-18 coach at the United States National Team Development Program in the early 2010s - to find areas of improvement within his game.
"Whenever we played the Islanders, [I would] catch up with him for 20 minutes or so. He's a great guy," said Grzelcyk. "Just a lot more about jumping up in the play, just kind of switching your mindset that way. We haven't watched a ton of videos as a team as much yet, but that was mostly from clips where we watched some breakouts together.
"If I just dish it to my partner, I can know that I can kind of get up in the play a little bit more and not hang back. So, that's always exciting for me. I just want to add a little bit of offense and hopefully I can jump right in when I come back."

Wait, There's More

• Montgomery said that his focus over the opening days of training camp will be blending in some of the youth with the team's existing veterans in an effort to show the younger players the Bruins way. "It's kind of the philosophy of enough vets in each group so that they take the ownership of teaching younger guys and guys that are new to the Bruins way," said Montgomery. "The first couple of exhibition games, we're really going to focus on getting a lot of people in the lineup…people got to earn it through these first couple of days. But we're going to want to see a lot of young players early for that reason."
• One example of Montgomery's philosophy was placing 2021 first-round Fabian Lysell on the right wing alongside Pavel Zacha and Patrice Bergeron during Thursday's first on-ice session. "I think it's important that you give players you think have the potential to play in those spots the opportunity to play in those spots," said Montgomery. "Because if we put them with fourth line players, maybe they don't get to see what they can do as far as making plays and jumping in the holes."
• Montgomery said his initial impression of Lysell was "just dynamic, how he attacks people's feet. He makes defensemen face him, which good offensive players will manipulate defensive feet and he understands how to do that already. So, he's going to make plays."
• Boston's new bench boss added that he was preaching "pace and language" during his first practice as head coach. "Trying to get players to understand how we want to play and how quickly we can get them up to speed and playing fast," said Montgomery. "And I think we've accomplished that in a couple of drills today."

Video: Montgomery talks with the media on Thursday

Thursday's Practice Lines

GROUP A
FORWARDS
Pavel Zacha - Patrice Bergeron - Fabian Lysell
A.J. Greer - Charlie Coyle - Oskar Steen
Taylor Hall - Jack Studnicka - Marc McLaughlin
Trent Frederic - Georgii Merkulov - Craig Smith
Eduards Tralmaks - Matthew Poitras - Justin Brazeau
DEFENSEMEN
Hampus Lindholm - Kai Wissmann
Derek Forbort - Jakub Zboril
Jack Ahcan - Brandon Carlo
Nick Wolff - Victor Berglund
Jackson Edward
GOALIES
Jeremy Swayman
Keith Kinkaid
Brandon Bussi

GROUP B
FORWARDS
Jakub Lauko - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Nick Foligno - Johnny Beecher - Jake DeBrusk
Luke Toporowski - Joona Koppanen - Chris Wagner
J.D. Greenway/Joey Abate - Tomas Nosek - Vinni Lettieri
Samuel Asselin - Curtis Hall - Alex-Oliver Voyer
DEFENSEMEN
Mike Reilly - Connor Clifton
Dan Renouf - Ryan Mast
Michael Callahan - Connor Carrick
Frederic Brunet - Josiah Didier
Jacob Wilson
GOALIES
Linus Ullmark
Kyle Keyser
Francois Brassard