BRIGHTON -- The Bruins have again recalled forward Austin Czarnik on an emergency basis after sending him back to the American Hockey League following last weekend’s appearance against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Czarnik was solid in a limited role during his season debut in Boston, recording a power-play assist in nine minutes of ice time as he stepped in when injuries and Brad Marchand's suspension cut into the Bruins' forward depth, and certainly merited another look simply based on his play. Czarnik served up the primary assist on Torey Krug’s insurance PP score in the second period of the big divisional win over Toronto, and the diminutive forward also skated effectively with Sean Kuraly and Frank Vatrano as a pieced-together fourth line.
“I [thought] he was good,” Bruce Cassidy said after the win over the Leafs. “Lots of energy, on the puck, made a play on the power play, which we’re used to seeing him make. I thought that whole line did their job pretty well, other than maybe the shift with a minute to go where they got hemmed in their own end a bit. But no complaints and that’s what we need.”
Czarnik, 25, leads Providence in scoring and is tied for sixth in the AHL in points with 13 goals and 42 points in 38 games. He was one of two P-Bruins selected to play in the 2018 AHL All-Star Classic. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound forward has 5 goals and 16 points for Boston in parts of the last three seasons since signing an entry-level deal with the B’s out of college.
The call-up is, of course, due to Kevan Miller (upper body), Noel Acciari (lower body) and Anders Bjork (upper body) all missing from practice and still out with injuries, while Marchand finishes up the final game of his five-game suspension for a head shot.
Here are the line combos and D-pairings from practice ahead of a two-game road trip through Detroit and New York City:
Heinen-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Spooner
Schaller-Nash-Backes
Vatrano-Kuraly-Czarnik
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Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-McQuaid
Rask
Khudobin