BRIGHTON, Mass – With a chance to close out their first-round series on home ice, it looks like the Bruins will get their best player back into the fold.
After a surprise, last-minute scratch ahead of Game 4 in Toronto, Patrice Bergeron (upper body injury) skated on Saturday morning with the rest of his team at Warrior Ice Arena and coach Bruce Cassidy said he's “looking good” to suit up for the Black and Gold against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at TD Garden.
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Bergeron went through a brief practice with the rest of his teammates and took his usual bumper role on the top power-play unit as they went through some drills, a couple of signs that No. 37 should be ready to go. There are no guarantees until he makes it through pregame warm-ups and the puck drops for Game 5, but it sure sounded a lot more promising for Bergeron than it did just a couple of days ago in Toronto.
“He looked good this morning,” said Cassidy. “If he’s fine in pregame skate, then I anticipate he’ll play, but we’ll make that decision after warm-ups. But it’s looking good.”
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Bergeron wouldn’t elaborate on the injury other than to say it wasn’t something he’d been managing all along, meaning it was something caused by a hit he took in Boston’s Game 3 loss in Toronto. The fact that Bergeron skated Wednesday, Friday and Saturday would strongly indicate that it wasn’t a concussion as some might have blindly speculated, but probably some kind of shoulder/arm injury suffered absorbing one of a couple of hard hits he took in Toronto.
Boston Bruins
Bergeron said the medical staff would have final say on whether or not he played, but he felt pretty good after going through the morning skate.
“I feel good. Hopefully, it stays like that. We’ll see what happens when I talk to the training staff when I get to the rink,” said Bergeron. “The doctors and training staff thought it was better [to not play] for that game. I was definitely confident [in the team], but you’re also a lot more nervous when you’re watching the game rather than playing in it.
“In the playoffs, it’s definitely a lot more painful [to miss] and that was a big discussion we had with the training staff. It’s always tough, for sure. I’m optimistic, and now it’s about selling it to the other side.”
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Clearly, the Bruins could use him after his line piled up 20 points in the first two games in the series prior to Bergeron taking the injurious hit in Game 3, but the other good news is that the Black and Gold were 12-5-2 in 19 games missed by their top center this season.
Here are the projected Bruins line combos and D-pairings for Game 5 based on the morning skate:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Nash
Heinen-Nash-Backes
Schaller-Kuraly-Acciari
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Miller
Grzelcyk-McQuaid
Rask