Bruins place Rinaldo on IR with upper body injury

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Bruins head coach Claude Julien said it was a “maintenance day” for Zac Rinaldo when he was missing from the Ristuccia Arena practice ice on Tuesday morning.

But it’s clearly more than that as the team announced eight hours later that the Bruins energy forward has been placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Rinaldo finished Monday night’s overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers without any obvious injury issues, but was involved in a brief fight with Matt Hendricks during the first period of the game.

Rinaldo finished with five hits in the game, and had just recently seemed to hit a groove with Max Talbot and Landon Ferraro as a fourth line that was giving the Black and Gold quality shifts on a consistent basis. Rinaldo has played in 26 games for the Bruins this season with one goal, two points and 53 penalty minutes while largely avoiding the ill-timed penalties and bad hits that colored his time with the Philadelphia Flyers.

With Rinaldo out for at least a week, that opens up a chance for rookie Tyler Randell to get back into the Black and Gold lineup and continue his impressive run as a rookie fourth liner with both toughness and a dash of offensive ability.

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