Boston Bruins: Weekend Preview for Their Minor League Affiliates

At least one half of the inevitably linked Ryan Spooner-Jared Knight tandem projects to be ready for the Providence Bruins’ second weekend of game action after each was nursing a mild injury earlier this week.

As it happens, it is Spooner, the half who so far has something to build upon this season, who figures to be ready. P-Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, in a Wednesday interview with the Providence Journal, described Knight as “questionable at best” for the team’s two-night road trip that begins in Manchester on Friday.

Spooner, on the other hand, will vie to extend his season-long, two-point production streak while his mates, as a group, pursue their first points in the fledgling AHL standings. The Bruins next crack at a win will come in the form of a rematch with the Monarchs, who last Friday nabbed a 3-1 triumph at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

Providence hopes to return the favor by spoiling the 2012-13 season opener at Verizon Wireless Arena. To do that, a multitude of skaters will need to perk up and start supplementing the line of Spooner, Max Sauve and Jamie Tardif, which has collaborated on two of the team’s first three goals on the year.

Knight’s prospective unavailability could increase the likelihood of inserting Kyle MacKinnon, the only one of the P-Bruins’ 14 rostered forwards yet to see game action. The sophomore center tallied a not-too-shabby 14 goals last season, but was relegated to a healthy scratch the arrival of multiple competitive newbies, including Knight and Spooner themselves.

Defensemen Ryan Button and Zach Trotman are MacKinnon’s only company in the way of waiting for game action. Although, considering the chief factors in the Bruins two fall-from-ahead falters last weekend, namely missed offensive opportunities at even strength and especially on the power play, Cassidy may keep the blue-line brigade status quo if he can.

It is likewise unclear as to who will tabbed to scrape the blue paint this weekend, although it would hardly be a shocker to see one of the organization’s newest masked men, Niklas Svedberg, make his debut.

For what it’s worth, incumbent starter Michael Hutchinson assumed the liability for both losses last weekend and bears an unsavory 3.06 goals-against average and .872 save percentage.

Certainly, if Hutchinson gets the nod once more but does not display substantive improvement, Svedberg ought to have his first regular-season North American twirl no later than Saturday’s venture to Springfield.

Like the Monarchs, the Springfield Falcons enter this weekend 2-0-0 on the year. They will engage the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday before concluding their four-game homestand against Providence.

Springfield, which will return the visit next Friday for the P-Bruins next home outing, boasts such notable names in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization as Ryan Johansen, Tim Erixon and Matt Calvert.

Digging Deeper In Double-A

After an anomalously light one-game weekend to commence their campaign, the Bruins’ new ECHL partner in South Carolina prepares for a rigorous slate of seven engagements in 12 days. It begins with a set of three consecutive game nights featuring a Friday excursion to Greenville followed by a two-night visit from the Ontario Reign.

The Stingrays are coming off a 4-3 win over the Gwinnett Gladiators last Saturday, highlighted by Adam Morrison’s 35-save effort and involving eight other cuts from the Providence training camp.

Not a bad opening statement in the case for a call-up, on Morrison’s end, anyway. But the state of the Stingrays will not start to take dependable shape until this weekend at the earliest.