Injured center Marc Savard, originally scheduled to return to Boston on Wednesday for further evaluation on his latest concussion, had not arrived as of the early afternoon due to weather problems both in Boston and in his hometown of Peterborough, Ontario. Savard had gone home to rest and recuperate after suffering a moderate concussion when hit into the boards in Colorado on Jan. 22.
"He hasn't [arrived in Boston]," Bruins coach Claude Julien said of Savard. "He's dealing with the storm situation, not just here but in Peterborough as well. He may still get in [Wednesday], but if not it will hopefully be [Thursday]. The goal is to bring him back here. It was supposed to be [Wednesday], but that hasn't happened yet."
Julien has been in contact with Savard, and joked about getting up to speed with the technology to keep in touch.
"We text," Julien said. "I'm catching up with the new trend, using all the abbreviations with it too so that I can be cool. We've gone back and forth to see how he's doing. He's battling with it and we'll let the medical people make the final assessment on him."
Savard's travel wasn't the only affected by Wednesday's wintry mix of snow, sleet and frozen rain. With driving conditions so hazardous, the Bruins canceled their scheduled practice in Wilmington and instead just conducted off-ice workouts at the Garden.
"I thought the safety of the players was the most important thing today,'' Julilen said. "I know here in Boston it's raining, but I come from out of town and it's freezing rain out there. It would have been high risk to bring the players in to Wilmington because it is freezing rain out there. We could get something done here much safer. We didn't want to risk having the players ride out there.''
The Bruins were unable to skate at the Garden because of a Linkin Park concert there Tuesday night, but Julien was confident his team would be prepared for a key inter-conference clash with Dallas on Thursday, which kicks off a challenging four-game homestand with San Jose, Montreal and Detroit following the Stars into Boston.
