With 21 goals and a plus-36 rating, first-year pro Blake Wheeler enjoyed a successful rookie season in the NHL.

But even a performance like that through the grind of the 81 games doesn’t guarantee him a spot among the Bruins’ top nine forwards, or even their starting lineup, for the playoff opener against Montreal Thursday night at TD Banknorth Garden.

Today Wheeler practiced among a foursome of players wearing brick-red, fourth-line jerseys, along with usual fourth-liners Shawn Thornton, Stephane Yelle and Byron Bitz. Wheeler had finished up the regular season skating on the Bruins’ top line with Marc Savard and Phil Kessel. While these line combinations are always subject to change, it would appear that Wheeler is in a battle for playing time.

“You go out there and do your best and I have no control over what the lineup is. You’ve just got to go with it.,” said Wheeler post-practice, after admitting he didn’t know how to answer the question of whether he expects to be in the lineup against the Habs.

The conventional thinking would be that Bitz will be the odd-man out, just as he was in the aftermath of the Bruins’ trade-deadline day acquistion of Mark Recchi. But it’s worth pointing out that the Thornton-Yelle-Bitz combination has been the Bruins’ most reliable line in terms of night-in, night-out intensity, and also brings an element of physicality that it would lack with Wheeler riding the wing.

If he’s cast in a fourth-line role, Wheeler knows he’ll have to tweak his approach ever so slightly. … continue reading @ TheBruinsBlog.net

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