Krejci, DeBrusk join B’s injured
As each day passes, it’s getting harder and harder to imagine the Bruins as a completely healthy team.
The B’s gathered for practice yesterday at Warrior Ice Arena, and yet again, a couple of important players will not be available for tonight’s game against arguably the NHL’s best team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
David Krejci is out with a reaggravation of the injury that kept him out for a month, believed to be some sort of back malady. Also, Jake DeBrusk will miss the game with an upper-body injury. Both players are termed dayto-day, coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Cassidy said the right results will produce the right frame of mind as the Bruins continue to weather this neverending storm. The Lightning, meanwhile, were sitting atop the Eastern Conference and leading the league in both goals scored (3.70 per game) and power-play efficiency (26.7 percent) going into last night’s game against Buffalo.
“If you win games, you tend to stay positive. If you don’t, you get down on yourself, at times,” Cassidy said. “Lately it’s been more positive than negative. We didn’t like Sunday’s result (a 4-2 loss to Edmonton), I don’t think we brought it, but we’ve got a bounce-back opportunity against a really good team. So the focus stays on the 20 guys in the lineup. Other guys get a chance to play in these situations, so they get excited about it. Guys returning to the lineup have a little more jump in their step.
“You’ve just got to put together a game plan that suits the group without getting too far away from what we do every night. There’s a little bit of tinkering, and it comes more with special teams, I think. But 5-on5, we try to play the same way.”
The possible good news is that David Backes, out since Oct. 30 because of colon surgery, and Brad Marchand, who’s missed eight of the past 10 games with a suspected concussion, have a chance to play. Both were full participants in practice. Also, Ryan Spooner, who missed Sunday’s game with a re-aggravation of the groin injury that kept him out five weeks, is expected back.
For Backes, it would be a very quick return following bouts with diverticulitis.
“The guys have established a pretty good identity winning the last four games before Sunday, and that needs to continue,” Backes said. “If I’m great, and I can push that envelope and maybe make some deals around the way, maybe I sneak my way in. I’m not ruled out, but I’m not necessarily ruled in, either.” Backes was scheduled to be out for eight weeks.
“It’s been fluid. It’s been dynamic. It’s progressed faster than we had imagined when going through the surgery,” he said. “If that date gets flexed around sooner rather than later, that’s great. If something happens where I’m not feeling good in the morning because something happens, then it’s later rather than sooner. But I’m still beating the time line.”
Backes is about 10 pounds lighter after his travails, and at one point during practice, he landed hard and flat on his back and got up with a big smile.
“I ate my stick a little bit, and I was tasting blood, and that hasn’t happened in a while. I could check that off the list of things to get me back in the swing of things,” Backes said.
Marchand still needs to be cleared but said he felt good. He last played Nov. 11.
“It’s more getting my timing back,” he said. “I feel good, I feel like my conditioning is there. It may just take a couple of shifts to get back in it. It’s tough to have to do it against a team like Tampa, but regardless, it’ll be nice to get back in it. I’ll skate around and let (Patrice Bergeron) play with it.”
Also, Anders Bjork, who has been out since taking a huge hit from Toronto’s Matt Martin on Nov. 11, returned to practice wearing a red non-contact jersey. He will not play tonight.
As for the goaltending, there was no news. Cassidy will wait until this morning to announce whether Tuukka Rask or Anton Khudobin will get the start.