BOSTON — Nathan Horton looked as physically engaged as he has in a while Saturday afternoon, and that culminated in a first period fight with Pittsburgh’s Jarome Iginla. Unfortunately for Horton and the Bruins, that’s where his day ended.
The big Boston winger left Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Pens with an apparent hand or wrist injury. Horton and Iginla dropped the gloves at 17:56 of the second period in a bout that was big on flailing, not so much on punches. However, as the fight came to an end, Horton fell to the ice, and may have jammed or twisted something.
Or maybe, as Iginla offered, a shoulder injury.
“Horton, he’s a tough competitor, and just kind of one of those things,” Iginla said. “We’re all kind of battling out there and jawing, and it was over pretty quick. I see that he didn’t come back, and I don’t know if it was his shoulder when he fell, but we fell down pretty quick. You never want to see that when you’re fighting, because those are unfortunately things that happen in the fights.”
That’s purely speculation, of course, as the Bruins offered no update on Horton’s status after the game.
“No, not yet, guys,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said when asked about whether or not he had an update on Horton. “I’ll let you guys know whenever the final evaluation is made. That could be tonight, later on tonight, or tomorrow at the latest.”
The Bruins play again Sunday afternoon, so a decision would obviously have to be made before then.
Horton had registered four hits in just 5:18 of ice time before leaving the game. He did not return after leaving.
