When the Boston Bruins open up the playoffs Monday night against the Florida Panthers, it’s unclear if Patrice Bergeron will be on the ice with his teammates.
The Bruins captain and first-line center missed his second consecutive practice Sunday due to both injury and illness, according to general manager Don Sweeney. This comes after Bergeron exited Boston’s regular-season finale against the Montreal Canadiens early because of an upper-body injury and was held out the remainder of the game for “precautionary” reasons.
Sweeney certainly didn’t alleviate the fear for Bruins fans that Bergeron could sit out Game 1, as the front office executive stated a determination of his availability will be made on game day.
“Taking an extra day again today, obviously. That’s to be decided (if he plays) tomorrow,” Sweeney told reporters following Sunday’s practice, per team-provided video. “If he feels well enough, he’ll play. If not, we’ve done a really good job down the stretch of trying to — (Tomas) Nosek missed a game, was under the weather. (Jeremy Swayman) was off today, under the weather. We’re just trying to monitor that and make sure we balance it out.
“Patrice doesn’t need extra days of practice. If he feels better, he’ll play.”
Even with a few players dealing with illness, Sweeney didn’t believe sickness was spreading around the Bruins’ locker room before they start the playoffs.
If Bergeron isn’t able to suit up — Brad Marchand said he expected him to play — it could be Pavel Zacha centering the top line and trying to form a connection on the fly with Marchand and Jake DeBrusk.
“When one of your better players is out — we’ve played different games with Patrice this year being out and all those guys have stepped in, but that’s to be decided,” Sweeney said. “So, we’re not focused on that. Obviously, Pavel gets some reps. That’s much needed to play with Jake and Brad because he hasn’t played a lot with them. Charlie Coyle has moved around there as well. That’s not something we’re overly concerned about at this point.”
The Bruins take on the Panthers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Monday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus 90 minutes of pregame coverage, on NESN.
