Donato Exceeds Expectation in NHL Debut

Ryan Donato made his NHL debut Monday night in an OT losing effort against the Blue Jackets and made an immediate impact in the scoring column. Donato, who tied for the lead in scoring for the winter olympics, scored his first NHL goal and added two helpers in his first NHL game. Three points, an even +/- and 6 SOG shows that this kid is going to make a name for himself in the NHL and if he can produce anything even remotely close to this on a regular basis, I see him staying in the lineup even when all of the Bruins injured players are back in the lineup, which may leave Sweeney with some interesting decisions to make.

That being said it was a one-game point in time and while Donato was able to put up outstanding numbers in college, the NHL is whole other stage and pace on which to play; it will be interesting to see how he plays down the stretch.

Backes appears to be sidelined for at least a week or two while his laceration heals, Chara is out for at least 1-2 more games, while McAvoy and Debrusk appear to have a longer timetable with McAvoy looking to return by playoffs and no timetable readily available for Debrusk. The good news is that Bergeron is skating again and will hopefully only miss a couple more games before he is suiting back up.