BOSTON — The Bruins held their first playoff practice Tuesday morning at TD Garden, but they skated with far from a full group.
In all, seven Bruins missed the club’s first session of preparation for its upcoming first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings. The Bruins missing from practice were forwards Patrice Bergeron, Chris Kelly, Daniel Paille and Loui Eriksson, as well as defensemen Kevan Miller, Matt Bartkowski and Andrej Meszaros.
The Bruins’ team policy — which is pretty much universal across the NHL this time of year — is to not discuss injuries during the playoffs. Bruins coach Claude Julien did say a flu bug is making its way through the Boston dressing room, but he didn’t specify which players were dealing with that and which players missed practice because of injuries.
“We’re trying to manage that the best we can,” Julien said. “The best thing we can do right now is to keep those guys away from others, but it seems like a few more have gotten that. It started off just before Saturday’s game with a couple of players and just evolved from there. We’re just trying to manage it now, and as far as (Wednesday) is concerned, you just cross your fingers that that’s the end of it and that your players are coming back.”
The Bruins recalled Justin Florek from Providence in time for the practice. The 23-year-old winger donned a merlot-colored sweater and skated with the team’s fourth line.
Here are the Bruins’ practices lines (and corresponding jersey color):
White: Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Gold: Brad Marchand — Carl Soderberg — Reilly Smith
Merlot: Justin Florek — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton — Jordan Caron
Defense: Zdeno Chara, Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug, Corey Potter, Johnny Boychuk
