Brad Marchand misses practice, Jim Montgomery shakes up lines

Coming off a frustrating 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers at the TD Garden Monday afternoon, the Boston Bruins held a practice at Warrior Ice Arena Tuesday before heading out on a three-game road that begins Wednesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Boston coach Jim Montgomery shook up his lines at practice a bit and that’s where we will begin the latest Boston Bruins News.

Montgomery mixes up practice lines

Looking to get his top six going, Montgomery was frustrated with their performance lately while praising the fourth line, which has been one of their better lines. Tuesday, Montgomery shuffled them around a little bit as well as the way drills are conducted.

Brad Marchand missed practice for what Montgomery called a maintenance day, and Max Jones moved up into his spot on the second line with Charlie Coyle and Morgan Geekie. On defense, the pairings were mixed up with Mason Lohrei paired with Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm with Brandon Carlo, and Andrew Peeke with Nikita Zadorov.

Bruins lines in practice today:

Zacha-Lindholm-Pastrnak
Jones-Coyle-Geekie
Frederic-Poitras-Tufte/Brazeau
Beecher-Kastelic-Koepke
Johnson

Lohrei-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Zadorov-Peeke
Wotherspoon

Swayman
Korpisalo

No Marchand.

— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) October 15, 2024

Also, Scott McLaughlin of WEEI mentioned that Montgomery changed drills up a little with the fourth line leading the drills instead of starting from the top and working their way down. Following practice Montgomery said that it was not intentional, but read into as you would like.

Marchand maintenance day

As mentioned above, it was a maintenance day for Marchand and it’s not surprising to see it. The Bruins are playing every other than to begin the season through tomorrow night at Colorado and with their captain coming off a busy summer in terms of surgeries, there are going to be a lot of maintenance days as the season goes along.

Tyler Johnson still practicing

Tyler Johnson, who was in training camp on a PTO, is doing what Danton Heinen did last season, he’s hanging around Boston for a bit without a contract. If he’s still here, you get the feeling that something might be coming down the road for the former Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning.