Severely shorthanded Bruins smoked by surging Rangers without two key forwards

Going into Friday afternoon’s game against the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins were extremely shorthanded. Before the game, the Bruins announced some roster moves with Georgii Merkulov recalled from the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL) and Casey Mittlestadt was activated off of injured reserve. Boston also put Matej Blümel on injured reserve and assigned Michael Callahan to the AHL.

To make matters even worse, head coach Marco Sturm announced before the game that David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha were both out and considered day-to-day.