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Boston Bruins easing Marc Savard into lineup

Image (1) Savard3-thumb-200x300-10340-thumb-250x375-10341.jpg for post 1335
It seems more and more likely that Marc Savard is going to return to the Boston Bruins during the second round, which bothers the inner-worried-mother in me. Still, he’s a hockey player and needs to help his team. The Bruins are being cautious about integrating Savard into their lineup as he starts to get his legs back, The Boston Globe reports.

Because of his layoff, Savard will not see the workload (18:34 of average ice time per game in the regular season) he assumed prior to his concussion. Given the perfection of the penalty kill against the Sabres, it’s a good bet that Savard will not see much shorthanded ice time.

“We’ve got to careful that we don’t think that all of a sudden, Marc Savard’s going to come in and control everything,” Julien said. “He hasn’t played in two months. So let’s understand that he’s going to need some time. We’re going to make sure that again, we give him that opportunity to better himself as we move along. You’ve got a great player coming into your lineup. But you’ve got a great player who hasn’t played in two months who’s stepping into the second round of the playoffs. Cautious is certainly something we have to be when it comes to that and not put too much on his plate. We’ll give him a chance to get better here properly.”

Today, for the first time, Savard participated in power-play drills, serving as the quarterback on the No. 2 unit. The coaching staff will not touch the top unit (Zdeno Chara, Matt Hunwick, David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, Mark Recchi), which performed well against Buffalo as Krejci worked the left-side half-wall.

Maybe it’s because I’ve simply read too many horror stories on the subject, but I’m weary of rushing a player back from something as serious as a concussion. It’s not exactly as if the Philadelphia Flyers are going to give him the “excuse me, pardon me” treatment, right?

Regardless, I wish Savard the best. He’s a gifted player who deserves to ply his craft.