WILMINGTON, Mass. — The Bruins returned to Ristuccia Arena to practice Wednesday, but it was what happened before the workout that was most noteworthy.
Forward Nathan Horton, who has been sidelined since suffering a concussion on Jan. 22 in Philadelphia and off the ice since suffering a setback in his recovery in early February, was back on skates. Horton skated for about 40 minutes before practice with injured goalie Tuukka Rask and Bruins strength and conditioning coach John Whitesides.
Bruins coach Claude Julien made it clear after practice that Horton is still not close to returning, but getting back on the ice is an encouraging sign.
"With Nathan, it's just going out there, nothing more than skating and trying to get a feel of how things are," Julien said. "Nothing more than that. He's not close to joining us as we speak, but still keeping our fingers crossed that it's going to go in the right direction."
Julien also noted that Horton had previously had a brief skate on his own before Wednesday’s workout.
"I think he might have gone out on his own for 15 minutes without doing much, just to put the blades on," Julien said. "But he just started skating."
Despite the lengthy absence, Julien stated that Horton remains in good spirits, and the coach has tried to help in that area by avoiding pressing him on hockey issues.
"Emotionally he's good," Julien said. "He's in a good spot emotionally. I haven't talked about anything related to hockey and him coming back. The last thing he needs is for his coach to start asking those kinds of questions. That's not my job and it's certainly not something that would be a positive thing to do. I leave him be. Everything I do with him is small talk, 'How are you doing today?' He's looking good, color-wise. He seems to have good color. He seems happy, so those kinds of things are encouraging."
It also seems to have helped Horton that he has remained involved with the team despite being out of the lineup.
"He comes in every day, everybody's happy to see him," Julien said. "He's happy to see everybody. There's no doubt he'd love to be a part of our group right now, but that's part of the nature of this game, you go through some situations where you've got to watch your team play and you hope that when he comes back he's hungry and wants to help his team."
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