WILMINGTON, Mass. — One day after officially shutting down Marc Savard for the season, the last thing the Bruins needed to see was another center suffering an injury.
But that's just what happened when Patrice Bergeron left practice early on Tuesday after being struck in the face with a puck off the glass. Johnny Boychuk's shot during a drill hit a partition in the glass at Ristuccia Arena, taking an unexpected bounce and striking Bergeron in the chin.
Bergeron scrambled off the ice in pain, and after being treated by the training staff at Ristuccia, was taken to a local hospital for stitches.
"You never like to see those things," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Those partitions in the glass are dangerous things. The puck hit the partition and hit him in the chin I guess. But from what I hear right now it's just stitches, so hopefully that's the only thing he gets."
Bergeron was also scheduled to have X-rays taken, but the injury was not believed to be anything more serious than a cut.
"Just out of precaution," Julien said of the decision for X-rays. "He felt good leaving here, but medically you've got to make sure you cover all angles."
Julien also expects Bergeron to be fine for Wednesday's game against Montreal.
"I've been told there shouldn't be an issue [playing Wednesday]," Julien said, adding that the further examinations at the hospital were necessary precautions. "You have to do that. You can't just let a player assume he's OK and not do those things. We have to make sure we're always 100 percent right on those situations."
Bergeron's teammates were shaken by the sight of the club's leading scorer leaving the ice hurt, but were relieved at the news that the injury does not appear to be serious.
"It's just one of those things," forward Milan Lucic said. "The d-man was trying to get the puck out and it hit a divider and unfortunately hit him in the face, but I think he's going to be OK, a couple stitches."
