BOSTON — Bruins center David Krejci is making progress toward returning to 100 percent health, but his status for Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden still is uncertain.
“I would love to play (versus Chicago), but we have to discuss it with the doctors,” Krejci said after practicing Wednesday, his second consecutive session taking contact. “I feel much better. … The last couple days skating with the team, it feels pretty good.”
“When you skate on your own, you start feeling better eventually. With the team, it’s something else. You battle, you do some line drills, it always helps. I felt alright, I felt obviously better every day. I’ll talk to the doctors and go from there, I guess it’s day-to-day right now.”
Krejci has missed 17 games with an undisclosed injury and hasn’t played since a 2-0 win over the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 18. The goal for Krejci is to be medically cleared and play a full game without any setbacks.
“It happened to me twice, so it’s in the back of my head, and it’s not something that I would love to think about,” Krejci said. “But at the end of the day, when the decision comes that I can play, then obviously (I’ll) get a little nervous, but that’s going to happen if I’m ready, or close to being ready. I’ll be nervous until I have that first game under my belt and I’m ready for the next one.”
Zdeno Chara also practiced Wednesday, but his status for Thursday is uncertain.
Veteran forwards Daniel Paille and Carl Soderberg were back on the ice Wednesday after missing Tuesday’s practice with a virus.
These were the lines and pairings during Wednesday’s practice:
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Loui Eriksson
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Seth Griffith
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Kevan Miller
Matt Bartkowski-Zach Trotman
Torey Krug-Joe Morrow
Tuukka Rask, Niklas Svedberg
Thumbnail photo via Kevin Hoffman/USA TODAY Sports Images
