The Bruins will be without one of their core players Wednesday in Carolina, with what has now been identified as a "core area" injury.
While the rest of the team traveled to Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, top-line center David Krejci remained behind in Boston after suffering an undisclosed injury during practice on Tuesday. After Wednesday's morning skate in Carolina, Bruin coach Claude Julien revealed the nature of the injury, which is not as serious as initially feared. Krejci could even join the Bruins for the second leg of their two-game trip in Chicago on Saturday, but his availability for that game will not be determined until later in the week.
"He's day-to-day and it's an injury in the core area," Julien told reporters. "So we can certainly eliminate the knee injury that's been speculated. It's a core injury and it's day-to-day, so we'll see how he does [to see] whether he joins us in Chicago or not."
Krejci was sidelined briefly in training camp with a mild groin injury. It is not known if this current injury is related to that.
Julien also noted that he expects the rest of the team to elevate its play in Krejci's absence, but can't afford to get away from the Bruins' team approach.
"We shouldn't need that to rally around, but at the same time it is a situation for everybody to step up," Julien said. "[It's that way] every time you have injuries, and Pittsburgh is a great example of that. Their team didn't stop playing because their top two players [Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin] were out of the lineup. We've been through that before, whether it's been [Marc] Savard or [Patrice] Bergeron or those kinds of guys in the past.
"We just have to make sure our guys keep playing their game," Julien continued. "As a group, if we all play our game, I think we're a much stronger team than if we try to just replace the guy and get away from our game. Nothing should change because of David's absence as far as our team play is concerned."
Losing Krejci is still a big blow. He tied for the team lead in points last year in the regular season and led the league in both goals (12) and points (23) in the playoffs in Boston's run to the Cup. Tyler Seguin will move into his spot between Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton on the top line on Wednesday, with Jordan Caron, a healthy scratch the last two games, returning to the lineup in Seguin's spot on the third line.
