Injuries will continue to keep a pair of key Boston Bruins out of action Thursday.
Both Charlie McAvoy and Tuukka Rask will miss Thursday's game against the Washington Capitals, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy announced following morning skate.
Rask has been out for roughly a month now due to a back issue sustained March 7. He took his time and started to recover, returning to game action on March 25. However, he reaggravated the injury in the first period of that game and has not played since, though he is on the team's current road trip.
Cassidy said that Rask came on the trip mostly so he could see some live shots with the team since there are so few injured players back in Boston who could join him on the ice.
McAvoy was held out of Tuesday's game due to an upper-body injury. He's considered day-to-day but did not skate Thursday morning. In fact, Cassidy indicated McAvoy is back in Boston, which not only rules him out Thursday but probably Saturday in Philadelphia, too.
In net, the Bruins will start Jeremy Swayman, who made his NHL debut Tuesday. At the blue line, Kevan Miller will be on the top pairing with Matt Grzelcyk, with Steven Kampfer staying in the lineup on a pairing with Jakub Zboril.
On a separate injury note, Cassidy said there was nothing new to report on Brandon Carlo, nor Ondrej Kase.
