Bruins' Spooner benched for Game 5 with restricted free agency looming

With his team on the brink of elimination, Boston Bruins interim head coach Bruce Cassidy has made a lineup decision that could have a big impact on the future of Ryan Spooner.

The 25-year-old center, who's set to become a restricted free agent this summer, will sit out Game 5 against the Ottawa Senators as the Bruins look to stave off elimination. At first, Cassidy said Spooner may not be playing at 100 percent health, but he later clarified the decision to insert rookie Sean Kuraly into the lineup.

"(Spooner) could play. This is more about what Sean brings right now," Cassidy said, per Joe Haggerty of CSNNE. "Clearly Ryan does some very good things for us, but we just made a decision that Sean, as a center iceman, will bring us some good qualities as well. So we had to make that decision."

And what are those qualities?

"I still think most of these games come down to the will at the puck, on the puck, around the puck," Cassidy added, according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe. "And we just have to have that. We’ve got to outwill them at the puck, to win pucks, and once we have it, we’ve got to outwill them at the net to get second chances and we have to outwill them in our slot area."

Spooner was often seen to be at odds with Claude Julien, and even admitted he didn't think the former head coach liked him as a player. Deployed on the wing to start the season under Julien and shifted back to center when Cassidy took over, he ultimately recorded 11 goals and 28 assists in 78 games, 10 points off his production from the season prior.

With his current two-year, $1.9-million deal set to expire at season's end, Spooner's benching after only two assists in four playoff games certainly doesn't bode well for a contract extension with the Bruins.

Kuraly, who came to Boston from San Jose as part of the Martin Jones trade, is under contract through to the end of next season, and has recorded one assist in 10 games with the Bruins.