Bergeron, Rask uncertain
Patrice Bergeron has a lower body injury, Tuukka Rask is breaking down and both were excused from Bruins practice yesterday at the Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton.
Not having either (or both) for tonight’s crucial divisional matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden would be a big loss for the B’s.
Bergeron sustained a right knee injury during Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center. Bergeron took a Matt Niskanen slap shot inside the knee pad in the third period and had to be helped off the ice. Ryan Spooner centered the second line with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak in practice.
“Patrice is doing really well and I’m certainly not erasing him from our lineup (tonight),” said Bruins coach Claude Julien after the practice.
“We just did that (using Spooner) for today and we are keeping our fingers crossed. If Bergy doesn’t go we will have to make a decision.”
Rask was given the day off for maintenance purposes but he will be available against the Leafs. Rask showed signs of fatigue in the loss to the Capitals, his second start in consecutive nights following his All-Star appearance last Sunday in Los Angeles.
Rask has played in 48 games and is 25-13-4 with a 2.24 goals-against average and .914 save percentage, numbers he needs to maintain in the second half of the season. But Rask’s backups, Anton Khudobin, Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre, are a combined 1-9-2, leaving Julien no option but to overwork the former Vezina Trophy winner.
“We are in game 53 and we’ve got one win from our backup goaltender so we are not blind to the matter,” said Julien. “We would like to have gotten Tuukka less games than we have but at the same time we can’t worry about a month from now.”
The match with the Leafs has taken on greater urgency because the Bruins have played a front-loaded schedule. The B’s (26-226) are three points ahead of the Leafs (23-17-9) in the Atlantic Division standings but Toronto has played five fewer games.
“We are fighting for our lives every game and we kind of put ourselves in this position where we can’t take any games off,” said Marchand.
Raging rookies
The Maple Leafs’ rookie corps has been on a scoring binge since the start of the season. The Leafs rookies have accounted for 184 points with 70 goals and 114 assists in 49 games.
Right winger Mitchell Marner is the rainmaker with 13 goals and 29 assists, while Auston Matthews is the sniper with 23 goals and 16 assists. Right winger William Nylander has 10 goals and 21 assists followed by Connor Brown (11-10-21), Zach Hyman (714-21), Nikita Zaitsev (1-2021), Nikita Soshnikov (3-3- 6) and Frederik Gauthier (2-1-3).
Pats fever
Julien arrived at his press briefing wearing a jersey bearing Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s mantra, “Do Your Job,” in block lettering just above the Flying Elvis. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and first-line winger David Backes wore similar shirts under their practice jerseys.
“I’m all-in and this is a tribute to us, we have to do our jobs,” said Julien.