Rask, Krug, Coyle, Krejci return to practice for Bruins

Tuukka Rask, Torey Krug, Charlie Coyle and David Krejci were among the Boston Bruins players who returned to training camp Monday.

The goalie, defenseman and forwards were all out Saturday.

Forwards Sean Kuraly and Nick Ritchie were also back. The Bruins were without forwards David Pastrnak, Ondrej Kase and Chris Wagner, and defenseman Charlie McAvoy. It was the fourth straight practice missed by Pastrnak and Kase. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.

Nine players were absent Saturday, when Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy hoped to do a full-team scrimmage. He's had to go into each practice with two plans, one with a larger group, one with players missing. He said it was important for the Bruins to play some 5-on-5 scrimmages, and they have had to work around the smaller numbers than anticipated.

"I'd like to have everyone on the ice at the same time for the continuity aspect," Cassidy said. "Us as coaches, we'll adapt, we'll make sure we get our work in. It's the players that miss, especially the ones that are doing things the right way. You miss a practice for whatever reason, through no fault of their own. I feel bad for them."

Krug, Krejci, Kuraly, Coyle, Joakim Nordstrom and Rask skated Sunday, a scheduled day off, and the Bruins are about a day behind where they had hoped to be at this point.

"Any player that misses a day here, it's not that big a deal," general manager Don Sweeney said Sunday. "When you're starting to miss weeks on end, which we've had a couple players that will be in that category, you certainly have rust that you'll have to knock off."

Pastrnak, who returned to the Czech Republic after the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, missed the first two days of camp. Sweeney said that his return was held up because of quarantine rules for players arriving from Europe. Pastrnak practiced July 15 but was ruled "unfit to participate" the next day and hasn't practiced since.

"From what I've talked to him, he seems to be in good spirits," forward Jake DeBrusk said. "Obviously it's not the ideal situation. But from what I've talked to him, he's still 'Pasta.' He's doing his thing. I'm not worried about him at all, to be honest with you.

"He wants to be out there just as much as we want him out there."

Pastrnak scored 48 goals this season, tying for the NHL lead with Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin.

"I don't think there's concern there," center Patrice Bergeron said. "I think right now what we're trying to get out of the first week of practice and now the next week is rhythm, getting your hands back individually, but also collectively, is the system, and the positioning and having the feel of 5-on-5 scrimmages back again. It's been a while for that.

"As far as chemistry now, is it ideal? No, it's not. But that being said, I think we -- me, [Pastrnak] and [Brad Marchand] -- have been playing together for a while now and it seems like every time we're put back on a line together we're finding the chemistry pretty quickly and it seems pretty seamless every time. We're hoping to rely on that when [Pastrnak comes back]. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later."

The Bruins, who finished with the best record in the NHL (44-14-12, .714 points percentage), will play in the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city, against the Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-6, .657), Capitals (41-20-8 .652), and Philadelphia Flyers (41-21-7, .645) to determine seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Boston's first game is against Philadelphia on Aug. 2.

"As we get closer to moving to the hub," Sweeney said, "we certainly would like to have the full component of our group at some point in time to be able to practice at the level and execute at the level we expect them to when we are playing games."