Fernandez is cleared - but when he will play?

WILMINGTON - For the first time in nearly two weeks, Manny Fernandez joined his teammates for practice.

And while Fernandez, who suffered a left knee strain Oct. 30, moved smoothly yesterday and has been cleared to play, he doesn't know whether his injury has fully healed.

"I don't know how to answer that," said Fernandez when asked if his knee is totally healthy. "Same question and same tough answer."

It's been a forgettable 10 months for Fernandez. On Jan. 20, he sprained his left knee and lost the No. 1 job in Minnesota to Niklas Backstrom. On July 1, Fernandez was traded to Boston, where he was expected to take over the starting job.

Fernandez appeared in four games, going 2-2-0 with a 3.93 goals-against average and .832 save percentage, before tweaking his knee again.

And with Tim Thomas (6-4-2, 1.65, .950) playing like one of the top three goalies in the NHL (Columbus's Pascal Leclaire and the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist have similar numbers), there's no telling when Fernandez will get his next start.

"I have to get my game back," Fernandez said. "Work on different situations. It's been over a week now that I haven't had any shots.

"Today was getting my feet wet a little bit. I'm a guy who likes to work hard in the first place. I tried to keep in shape while I was out as much as I could. Now it's getting my stuff back - my vision, my positioning, all that stuff."

Thomas has started the last eight games. The Bruins next play Thursday at home against Toronto, then play at Montreal Saturday, and wrap up their nine-game Northeast Division string next Tuesday against the Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. The Bruins don't play back-to-back games until Nov. 23-24 against the Islanders. Fernandez hasn't played since Oct. 22.

"We've been doing a lot extra after practice," said coach Claude Julien. "We've got [goaltending coach] Bob Essensa here to help him out as well. We'll have him ready whenever he's ready, I guess. We're going to work on him. Hopefully sooner rather than later, he'll be ready to jump in there."

On the plus side

Marco Sturm is tied with linemate Chuck Kobasew for the team lead with seven goals. He also leads the club with two power-play strikes and a pair of game-winning goals.

But the statistic that might give him the most satisfaction is his plus-6 rating, especially after logging a career-worst minus-24 last season.

"I think I've had a decent start," said Sturm. "I'm scoring goals, but I'm also plus, too, which kind of bugged me last year. I'm usually always on the plus [side]. So yeah, I think I'm playing good right now."

Sturm's plus-6 rating is especially impressive considering that Julien sometimes deployed the left wing, along with Kobasew and Patrice Bergeron, as a shut-down forward against top-line gunners like Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier and the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr.

With the offensive-minded Phil Kessel slotting into Bergeron's center position, the line's duties have changed, as Julien has shied away from using the unit as a checking threesome.

But Sturm has continued to remain effective at both ends despite the absence of Bergeron, one of his closest friends on the team. Sturm has been promoted to the No. 1 power-play unit, and Julien has used him as a regular penalty-killer.

"I see him getting better and better in the last couple weeks," said Julien. "He's finding his comfort zone where he's able to [play offense and defense] very well.

"He's a smart hockey player. You can use him on the penalty kill and on the power play. He's a player you can use in the last minutes of the game and you know he's going to make the right decisions."

He'll be psyched

Aaron Ward, who missed a game for the first time this season Saturday because of a concussion sustained two days earlier, returned to practice yesterday and skated with no limitations. He is scheduled to undergo a neuro-psych test today. If he passes, he will be cleared to play Thursday against Toronto. When asked where he was scheduled to take the test, Ward said he had no idea. "Maybe that's the first part of the test," Ward joked. "You get a map and read it." . . . Although Glen Murray hasn't scored a goal in 12 games, Julien said he sees positive things in the right wing's play. "If you watch him play, you can't say he's not competing," said Julien. "He's competing hard. He's competing hard along the boards. He's working hard. You see him forechecking. You see him working in all those areas. The only thing I find that's obviously made a big difference in his game is that he hasn't gotten the goal production that he and we expect of him. Hopefully he'll find the bottom of the net sooner or later and get his confidence and his streak going. I know he's a pretty streaky goal-scorer. We can certainly use that. No doubt." . . . Julien said Andrew Ference (upper core) and Bobby Allen (arm) are on track to practice today at Ristuccia Arena, perhaps cutting short Matt Hunwick's first NHL promotion. Hunwick was paired with Mark Stuart yesterday . . . Marc Savard was given what Julien called a therapeutic day off yesterday.