To say the Boston Bruins have been bitten by the injury bug this season would be a massive understatement.
Ailments continue to mount for the B’s, so much so that both Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril made their NHL debut Friday to help alleviate Boston’s depleted blue line.
The laundry list of injuries appeared to mount in the second period of the Bruins’ tilt against the Dallas Stars when Patrice Bergeron was the recipient of a heavy hit from Radek Faksa. The veteran center laid down on the ice for a moment before gingerly making his way back to the locker room. Luckily for Bergeron and his team, he returned to the ice later in the frame and finished the contest.
Speaking after Boston’s 1-0 overtime loss, Bruce Cassidy noted Bergeron likely wouldn’t suit up for Saturday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. But beyond that, the head coach doesn’t yet know what to make of Bergeron’s status.
“He’ll be evaluated better in the morning,” Cassidy said, per Bruins.com. “Right now, he was having a tough time finishing the game. It would lead me to believe he’ll have a tough time playing tomorrow. But he’s also a tough guy. We’ll see how it is.
“He does have a few days in between games (after Arizona), there’s that to look at. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to find out what the extent of the injury is first and go from there.”
The fact that Bergeron returned to game action makes it seem as though he avoided a serious injury, but as Cassidy noted, that solely could have been a product of Bergeron’s toughness. Before the Bruins’ game Saturday night against the Arizona Coyotes, Cassidy provided another update on Bergeron:
Either way, the Black and Gold can ill afford to be without their top-line center for an extended period of time, especially with Zdeno Chara reportedly sidelined for the next four to six weeks with a knee injury.
