The Bruins practiced Monday in preparation for a big Eastern Conference tilt with the red-hot Washington Capitals, who have won 10 in a row and sit atop the conference standings.
Boston got a bit of good news and a bit of bad news.
First, the bad news. Mark Stuart will be out for at least the next month of action. Head coach Claude Julien told the media that Stuart is out until after the Olympic break with a broken finger, which he suffered when he fought Wayne Simmonds in the second period of Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss. He missed 14 games earlier this season with a broken sternum and will now miss at least seven more with the broken finger.
"I thought last couple of games, Stewey was playing some of his best hockey and we liked his game," Julien said. "Now, unfortunately he's going to miss three to four weeks. That's probably the unfortunate part. It's his second major injury this season and that's a guy that had played so many games in a row and been so reliable."
Stuart underwent successful surgery to repair the finger on his right hand on Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Julien said he would like to see the rest of the team step up, just as Stuart did with his hit on Saturday night.
"Absolutely, you want to see things from players that shows that they're in the game and they want to be difference-makers," he said. "They want to give their team some momentum and no doubt you saw what that did for our team in the last game."
Adam McQuaid has been called up on an emergency basis to fill Stuart's spot.
The good news, though, is that Andrew Ference skated with the team for the first time since injuring his groin on Jan. 5.
Here's what the lineups looked like on Monday:
Forwards
Milan Lucic–Marc Savard–Miroslav Satan
Marco Sturm–Patrice Bergeron–Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler–David Krejci–Michael Ryder
Daniel Paille–Steve Begin–Byron Bitz
Defensemen
Zdeno Chara–Derek Morris
Matt Hunwick–Dennis Wideman
Adam McQuaid–Johnny Boychuk
Goaltenders
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
