Veteran blue liner Anton Stralman finally has his visa issues behind him and was on the ice for Friday's practice at Warrior Ice Arena. The 36-year-old made his Bruins debut on Tuesday night in Ottawa but was not eligible to play in the United States and only arrived back in Boston on Friday morning.
"I'm here, they let me in," Stralman said with a chuckle. "It was frustrating. It had to be done and everybody was doing their best, obviously, to make it happen. But with anything like that you want it to go fast and obviously quicker than it did. It is what it is. You have to deal with it.
"But now I'm here, so I'm looking forward to it and ready to go. It's fun and it's a great group. Fun group, good team. I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish."
Stralman acknowledged that it has been tough to find any rhythm with so much uncertainty surrounding his situation. While he had a solid preseason, the defenseman was only in camp on a Professional Tryout Agreement and did not sign a contract with Boston until the day of the season opener in Washington.
From there, the immigration issues kept him sidelined and unable to keep up with game speed.
"It was nice to be out there playing again," said Stralman. "But it's tough, tough to get in the groove of things. But we're past that now. Now, it's just look ahead and prepare every day and get back and into everything."
In his debut on Tuesday night, Stralman logged 18:29 of ice time but finished a minus-2 and was on the ice for Ottawa's winning goal. It was an unfortunate finish despite a strong opening period.
"I felt good in the first period. Sort of got into the game pretty well. And then obviously when you have an assist on a game winner for the other team, you're never happy. And that's hockey," said Stralman. "You have to live it up, enjoy those, but you have to figure out the downs, too. And, I think I think as a team, we were disappointed giving up seven goals and especially the way we did in that game, all the chances down the middle in the slot. That's not a recipe to win games.
"I couldn't see the game last night, but, obviously, defensively, giving up one goal gives you a chance to win every game. So, that's what we're looking for."
Montgomery said that it's "highly unlikely" Stralman will be in the lineup on Saturday afternoon, adding that he'd like the blue liner to get some more practice reps under his belt before tossing him back into game action.
"We need to get him a couple of days of practice to get his skating conditioning back," said Montgomery. "It just adds to the quality of depth that we have in our team…I thought his first period [in Ottawa] was really good and then it looked like he hit a wall because he's a guy that is so good with his game maintenance and that was the issue that I think got him in trouble.
"And I think it's when he hasn't been on the ice, he plays a game on Tuesday night. He hasn't been on the ice for four days. He's with his family in Ottawa in a hotel room. It's hard to keep where you're supposed to be at mentally to go out and play in NHL games - best league in the world.
"That's just a tough circumstance. So, I'm going to give him a big pass on that on."
