BRIGHTON — Life without Tuukka Rask has been pretty rough early on in the 2016-17 season. For the time being, the Bruins and their fans can breathe a sigh of relief.

After missing the last three games due to a lower body (hamstring), Rask joined his teammates in practice for the first time since last week at Warrior Ice Arena. The Finnish goalie started his session with goaltending coach Bob Essensa before the full team practice and looked fairly comfortable during Friday’s drills.

Though a starter has not been named for Saturday’s game against the Red Wings — the second of a four-game road trip — Rask will be traveling with the team in Detroit. The Bruins’ will end their road swing in Florida with matchups against the Panthers (Tuesday) and Lightning (Thursday)

“[He] practiced today and he’s coming on the trip,” head coach Claude Julien said about Rask. “That’s all I can say right now that he’s coming on the trip and we’ll see.”

Certainly this is encouraging news around The Hub, but is there a cause for concern that Rask’s lower body issue — whether it’s a leg or hamstring — might hamper him long term? Judging that he missed ensuing starts against the Maple Leafs and the last three games against the Canadiens, Wild and Rangers after tweaking his leg or hamstring in two starts against the Blue Jackets and Devils there’s certainly a reason to keep an eye on Rask’s health.

At this moment, however, Rask feels good enough to at least play the backup role in Detroit on Saturday. But the Bruins and Rask are also concered about the potential of this injury recurring during the course of the season.

“It’s good enough that I can be back out there and resume skating,” Rask said about his nagging lower body pain. “I don’t think it’s very tough to be 100 percent without taking a month or two off with these type of things, but I feel good enough and comfortable enough.”

“That’s the thing that we’re kind of talking about,” Rask added. “We talked about it last week, the risk/reward and what it is and how we should proceed. It feels good enough now that I can comfortably practice.”

Whether it’s Saturday in Detroit or next week during their stint in the Sunshine State, the Bruins are hopeful that Rask can carry over his success from his first three starts. During that span, Rask is a perfect 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals against average and .947 save percentage. The other three goalies who started in Rask’s place, Anton Khudobin (out for at least three weeks with an upper body injury), Zane McIntyre and Malcolm Subban, are a combined 0-4-0 with a skyrocketing 4.50 goals against average and a less than pedestrian save percentage of .780.

Some of those eye-popping numbers from Khudobin, McIntyre and Subban aren’t helped by the fact that the Bruins defense continues to be a work in progress. Over the last three games, the team has been outscored 15-4 with nine of those goals coming in the second period.

Though the Bruins defense still has its work cut out, they hope a returning Rask can at least help settle things down.

“Obviously when he’s out there it’s a calming demeanor,” Krug said about Rask. “It’s just good that he’s back out there and hopefully he can suit up for us in a game [on the road trip] and help us out.”

With Rask back in the fold, the Bruins have a decision to make on sending one of their other goalies down to Providence. Both McIntyre and Subban, who were recalled from the Baby Bruins earlier in the week, joined Rask at practice.