A few Boston Bruins regulars won’t play Saturday due to injury, but that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to miss next week’s season opener.
The Bruins are set to wrap up their preseason schedule with a home date against the Chicago Blackhawks. After that, they’ll kick off the regular season with a four-game road trip beginning Thursday against the Dallas Stars.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy shared updates on a few players after Friday’s practice.
David Krejci has been out since falling awkwardly during his second shift in Monday’s game. He’s yet to return to practice, but at no point has Cassidy expressed concern.
“He’s in today getting treatment, obviously not on the ice,” Cassidy said Friday. “He won’t play tomorrow. I think he’ll be back on the ice Sunday or Monday and hopefully with the group by early next week ready to go.”
Joakim Nordstrom has been out of action pretty much all of training camp, not taking part in any full-contact practices. He’s recovering from a foot injury that required surgery during the offseason.
“There is now (a question about his opening night status),” Cassidy indicated. “He won’t play tomorrow, so I was hoping he’d get a game in before all was said and done. We didn’t think he’d play until at least Wednesday or Saturday, but he’s gotten neither, so he’s a little behind schedule, so we’ll see how that plays out.
“I think something just lingered, so I guess setback may be the word, didn’t come around as quickly as he’d like, all of the above,” Cassidy later added. “We don’t expect it’s going to drag on forever, but we were hoping he’d be back up to speed by now or early next week. Which, it could still happen next week, but we did want to get him in a game and it didn’t happen.”
By the sounds of it, Nordstrom won’t require a trip to injured reserve unless things continue to linger. Nevertheless, either Par Lindholm, David Backes or Brett Ritchie likely would fill the void left by Nordstrom, while one of the others would skate on the third line and the final of the trio would be a healthy scratch. That’s all assuming Krejci is good to go.
“We’re anticipating that (Nordstrom will be ready for the opener), but again until he gets on the ice it’s kind of a tough call,” Cassidy said. “We do have good depth so we’re not going to push him, but he does need to get back involved. Krech was at least skating with us, started a game, he’s had some training camp. Nordy has had very little. So that would be tough to throw him right back in a game if he doesn’t get back with us by Monday or Tuesday in a full practice.”
Jack Studnicka, who lost some teeth Wednesday while deflecting in a goal with his mouth, had dental work done Friday and won’t play Saturday.
