The Boston Bruins have been running a little shorthanded lately thanks to a slew of injuries.
Particularly on the back end, the Bruins are banged up.
Brandon Carlo is out indefinitely after getting boarded by Tom Wilson, a hit that led to the Washington Capitals winger getting suspended for seven games.
That came after issues with Kevan Miller’s knee, which flared back up, and Jeremy Lauzon being out with a fractured left hand.
Up front, Ondrej Kase has been out with an upper-body injury sustained during the second game of the season.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney on Wednesday shared updates on everyone.
On Kase: “He’s back on the ice, but there’s zero timetables for when he’ll return. As you know, it’s just whatever medically allows him to continue to progress, he’ll do so. He’s eager to play, but sometimes things take their own natural course to get past where he needs to.”
On Lauzon: “Fractures are what they are. He had surgery to hopefully help the healing process. (The doctor) did the job that he generally does, it’ll help Lauzy, who’s back on the ice, to continue to keep his legs. It’s just a matter of the healing process. It was always a four-to-six (week) timeline, and we’ll reevaluate at four weeks and hopefully he’s on the shorter side of that. But time will tell.”
On Carlo: “There’s no timeline there. Feels better, but is not back on the ice. And until that happens, we won’t have any indication of what direction he’s headed until he’s healthy and further along.”
On Miller: “Kevan’s back on the ice and working his way back. Had a setback from a volume standpoint, which we probably expected at some point in time over the course of the season with the layoff he’s had. But he’s making some strides.”
As you can gather, Lauzon is the only one with a semi-concrete timetable, while it’s more uncertain for all the others. The Bruins do have some depth, though, which should allow them to tread water as long as they need to.
