Bruins recall Mason Lohrei, place Derek Forbort on long-term injured reserve

Bruins

“He was actually dominant the primary week he was again.”

The Bruins are shuffling round their D corps forward of Thursday’s residence recreation towards the Buffalo Sabres.

Shortly after Thursday’s morning skate received underway at Warrior Ice Enviornment, the Bruins introduced that Derek Forbort has been positioned on long-term injured reserve, with rookie Mason Lohrei recalled from Windfall on an emergency foundation.

This stands because the second time this season that Forbort will miss a number of video games resulting from a lower-body harm that has plagued him all season. He missed 4 video games earlier this fall, with Boston’s most-recent stretch of 9 video games in 16 days forcing the blueliner to go on the shelf.

“It’s a lower-body harm. … We’ve given him, I believe at one level we gave him 5 days off,” Montgomery stated of Forbort’s harm on Thursday. “And it was doing nicely. However the 9 video games in 16 days, simply the repetitive calls for on the physique, it’s come again. We’re gonna give [him] slightly prolonged time to attempt to nip this for the remainder of the 12 months.”

With Forbort now on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), he should miss not less than 10 video games and 24 days, placing his earliest attainable return on New 12 months’s Eve towards the Pink Wings.

Lohrei was despatched right down to Windfall on Nov. 25 after Matt Grzelcyk was activated off of LTIR. The 22-year-old defenseman solely performed three video games down within the AHL throughout his newest stint earlier than getting the decision again as much as the NHL ranks.

Lohrei performed in 10 video games with Boston following Grzelcyk’s harm, scoring a purpose, including three assists, and averaging 17:35 of ice time per contest.

Whereas the puck-moving Lohrei was a logical alternative for Grzelcyk given their related skillsets within the offensive zone, the rookie’s utilization will have to be tweaked if he’s requested to step into Forbort’s minutes.

With Forbort routinely handed loads of D-zone begins and heavy reps on the penalty kill, Montgomery acknowledged that Boston might want to shift a few of the remaining personnel round so as to account for Forbort’s absence on particular groups.

“[Hampus Lindholm] will go within the first pairing [with Brandon Carlo], and [Grzelcyk] has executed a extremely good job right here this 12 months being prepared in follow,” Montgomery stated of D-men replacements on the PK. “He’s executed an excellent job of working the proper routes.

“And we predict he’s going to do a extremely good job for us, so he’s going to be the second left shot pairing up there. After which Lohrei has killed some already this 12 months. So now we received three left photographs to play tonight in that scenario.”

Lohrei’s playmaking poise is clear, together with his 6-foot-5 body portray the image of a novel blue-chip prospect who can anchor Boston’s top-four grouping for years to come back.

However Lohrei might want to tighten up his D-zone play in his second go-around with Boston.

Throughout Lohrei’s 161:00 of 5v5 reps with Boston, opponents nonetheless outscored Boston, 11-7. Over his 10-game stint with Boston, the Bruins solely gave up 16 whole 5v5 objectives.

“He did very well, he was actually dominant the primary week he was again,” Montgomery stated of Lohrei’s development with Windfall. “Was not as dominant this weekend, however nonetheless helped the staff win some hockey video games.

“We all know what he’s executed for us right here and the way good he’s been, and we’re excited to see the place he’s at in his improvement stage now, which goes to assist us like he did final time we performed Buffalo.”