While the rest of the Bruins spent Sunday in Los Angeles preparing for Monday’s matchup with the Kings, Marc Savard was traveling back to Boston.
Savard suffered a head injury early in the second period of Saturday’s 6-2 win in Colorado when his head hit the glass above the boards after a hit by former Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick. Savard, who suffered a severe concussion on a blindside hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke on March 7 and missed training camp and the first 23 games of this season after a recurrence of post-concussion syndrome symptoms over the summer, was sent back to Boston for tests.
Bruins coach Claude Julien spoke with reporters after practice, but wasn’t able to offer much new information on Savard’s status.
“Nothing’s happened since he left or since he’s got to Boston,” Julien said. “I haven’t heard of anything yet. We may not find out anything until [Monday].”
Julien did state that Savard was suffering headaches, but did not believe that this injury was too severe.
“His head was hurting,” Julien said. “He was cut over the head. Our medical staff felt it was cautious with what’s happened to him to send him back home. He still had those headaches [Sunday] morning. They haven’t deemed it anything yet. That’s what’s going to happen in Boston. They’re going to check him out and figure out if it’s real serious, which it didn’t seem serious. He remembered everything. It was more the cut and everything else. It was a cautionary move on our part that everybody agreed on.”
With Savard sidelined, Julien shuffled his lines once again in practice, and the new combinations will likely see action Monday against the Kings.
“We had to move some guys around [Sunday] and we’re going to probably start with that [Monday],” Julien said. “If we have to make some more adjustments I think we have some other ideas on how to work things around, but it’s giving guys opportunities.”
Julien reunited the top line that opened the season on fire, putting David Krejci back between Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton. Lucic and Krejci showed signs of breaking out of their slumps with Lucic scoring two goals and Krejci collecting two assists in Colorado. They will now try to snap Horton out of his extended funk, as he has just one goal in his last 18 games.
The line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi, which has been Boston’s best of late, did remain together. They combined for four goals and 10 points in Saturday’s win. On the third line, Tyler Seguin moved back to center between Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder, while Daniel Paille gets back into the lineup, sliding into Wheeler’s spot alongside Greg Campbell and Shawn Thornton.
Paille has struggled much of this season, but was playing much better in his most recent stint in the lineup when Horton and Lucic each were sidelined briefly with undisclosed injuries.
“Dan Paille will obviously be in the lineup [Monday] to replace Marc Savard,” Julien said. “I thought just before he was taken out of the lineup he was really finding his stride. He’s a guy who’s a good skater and once he has his confidence he’s a pretty good player for us. So we’re hoping that he comes into the lineup tomorrow and exhibits the confidence he was having there at the end.”
