Bruins’ Brad Marchand Misses Practice, Veteran Forward Returns

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand turned 36 years old Saturday, but it wasn’t much of a day to celebrate.

Marchand was not on the ice for practice at Warrior Ice Arena, according to Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic, and it’s a safe bet he wasn’t absent for eating too much cake.

The B’s were without their captain for the third period of Friday’s blowout loss to the the Florida Panthers at TD Garden. It’s an upper-body injury, according to Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, who said Saturday that his captain in day-to-day.

Marchand appeared to suffer the injury after taking a hit from Panthers forward Sam Bennett, who might have gotten away with a rabbit punch that connected above Marchand’s shoulders. Bennett wasn’t called for a penalty on the play, though it likely could have been an interference call at the very least.

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice downplayed the incident Saturday, saying he doesn’t see a punch.

“No, and I don’t think most of you would either. It was just a collision,” Maurice said, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. “In a perfect world, every team has everybody healthy. Nobody likes to see anybody hurt.”

It wasn’t all negativity at Bruins practice, though, as Danton Heinen returned to give the team perfect attendance outside of the captain. He skated alongside Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic, according to Shinzawa, with Montgomery making quite a few line changes. Jake DeBrusk, Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak skated with each other on the top line, while James van Riemsdyk, Justin Brazeau and Pavel Zacha combined to make up the second line.