Peter Cehlarik made his NHL debut Saturday, riding the left wing on a trio with David Krejci and David Pastrnak, an all-Euro line that coach Bruce Cassidy hoped would give Krejci a give-and-go option off the left side.

The move to bring in Ceh­larik also pushed veteran winger Matt Beleskey, still recovering from a leg injury, to the sidelines.

“That’s part of it,’’ said Cassidy, noting that Beleskey hasn’t fully recovered from the hit he took in Buffalo on Dec. 3. “It’s not punishment. With his injury, we’ve got to get him back up to playing speed or pace, or whatever you want to call it.’’

Beleskey, the club’s top free agent acquisition in July 2015, was sidelined some six weeks before returning to the lineup Jan. 20 vs. Chicago. In his eight games back punching the clock, he delivered only two assists, with an average of some 13 minutes of ice time per game.

The 21-year-old Cehlarik didn’t get on the scoresheet, nor did he land a shot on net in his 13:50 of ice time, but he looked comfortable with his linemates and showed offensive flashes.

“I liked his game,’’ said Cassidy. “He complemented that line — good board work. I thought he got on top of pucks, made some plays . . . there were some nerves there as well. As he gets more comfortable, he should only get better. Nice job.’’

“I felt really good, actually,’’ said Cehlarik. “I tried to play with speed and fit in with those guys. Maybe I overpassed sometimes and I should look to get in more and shoot the puck.’’

Chara back in place

Team captain Zdeno Chara was back on the Boston blue line after being sidelined with flu-like symptoms for Cassidy’s debut behind the bench Thursday.

Chara, who will turn 40 years old next month, said he has been hit with similar viral bugs on average every five-six seasons since breaking into the league with the Islanders in 1997-98.

“Something hard to explain,’’ said Chara, who played in his 1,325th game Saturday. “You feel so fatigued and so out of it — you could do more harm to the team and to yourself than good [by playing Thursday]. So we decided it would be best to stay away.’’

Chara logged his usual workload (TOI: 21:57) and provided the back line with the expected cohesiveness.

Claude Julien, who took over the bench after Chara’s first season in Boston, was fired Tuesday, the day Chara was felled by the virus.

“It’s a tough when you see a coach, a good coach, a good person being let go, because obviously the results we put up were not good enough,’’ Chara said. “So we all take responsibility for that. He’s obviously a coach who did a tremendous job in Boston over the course of his time here, and a big part of us winning in 2011. That will never be forgotten — wherever he goes he’ll be having success and we all wish him well.’’

The “reality’’ of the workplace, noted Chara, is that coaches are frequently moved in and out of jobs.

“It happened to me in Ottawa,’’ he said. “It happened my first year in Boston [Dave Lewis fired]. This is obviously part of the darker side of the sports business. We have to be professional. We have to focus on the job, do our job, and do it better. These things, you can control by playing better and having better results, and if the results are not there you obviously feel bad for coaches being let go.’’

Super faceoff

The sellout crowd basked a little more in the Patriots’ thrilling Super Bowl victory when a contingent of players and coaches took the ice for the ceremonial faceoff.

James White did the honors, dropping the puck between Chara and his Canucks counterpart, Henrik Sedin.

White was joined by fellow players David Andrews, Joe Cardona, James Develin, Geneo Grissom, Matthew Slater, Nate Solder, and Sebastian Vollmer.

The Patriots also flooded the zone with six coaches: Moses Cabrera, Joe Judge, Matt Patricia, Jerry Schuplinski, Steve Belichick, and Josh Boyer.

Once the puck was dropped, Chara handed it back to White as a keepsake. Both Chara and Sedin made a point of shaking hands with each of the Patriots.

Pregame miss

Pregame, the video board over center ice carried a 98.5 The Sports Hub promo, noting its 30-minute pregame show would include a segment named, “Behind The Bench with Coach Claude Julien.’’ . . . Prior to puck drop, a moment of silence was held for Mike ­Ilitch, the owner of the Detroit Red Wings. Ilitch died Friday at age 87 . . . Cehlarik wore Black and Gold sweater No. 83. The only other Bruin to wear 83: short-timer Pat Leahy (2006) . . . Ex-Bruin Loui Eriksson had a quiet afternoon. He collected three shots but didn’t put up a point and finished minus-2. He is a mere 11-11—22 and a minus-9 for the season . . . Also a quiet day for David Backes, whom the Bruins signed when Eriksson bolted to the Canucks. Backes landed one shot, went 0-0—0, but did record a game-high seven hits . . . Brad Marchand was kept off the scoresheet, after going a blistering 7-5—12 in the previous six games . . . The Canucks outshot the Bruins, 32-30, ending a 16-game stretch in which the Black and Gold outshot the opposition. The Bruins were 1 for 2 on the power play. They had scored two power-play goals in each of their three previous games, something they hadn’t done since January 2009.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.