PHILADELPHIA – The Black and Gold will get a very big piece back on Sunday afternoon as Zdeno Chara is slated to suit up and play for the Bruins after missing the previous nine games with an upper body injury suffered when he crashed upper body-first into the boards in Carolina.
The Bruins will be getting their 41-year-old captain and defensive stopper back as they lose fellow big-bodied Brandon Carlo to a lower body that required him being taken off the ice in a stretcher during Saturday afternoon’s win over the Panthers. Bruce Cassidy said the Bruins wouldn’t have a complete diagnosis on the 21-year-old defenseman until some of the swelling goes down with the leg injury, but there wasn’t much of an optimistic tone about it being anything but a serious injury.
It’s a shame for a young player in Carlo that was playing his best hockey of the season over the last month, and was playing with the kind of puck-moving confidence and defensive snarl that hint at the possibilities for the young 6-foot-5 defender.
“Until the swelling goes down there’s not going to be a timetable on his injury, or what we’re going to do,” said Cassidy, of a play where it looked like his left leg folded awkwardly in what could be a knee or a lower leg injury . “Looking at the video we’re probably not going to have good news, but we don’t have definite answers today.
“I don’t want to speculate that he’ll miss [the playoffs], but if he does then it sucks, honestly, for a guy that’s played every regular season game and been healthy through two seasons. The only game he missed this year was when he was a healthy scratch and we put him up top. I think the whole group felt badly for him being taken off on a stretcher. Let’s face it, when there’s a stretcher involved it’s probably not good.”
Carlo remained behind in Boston to heal up and receive treatment from doctors, and so did third line center Riley Nash after taking a puck to the ear that required 40 stitches inside and outside the ear to close up the gash. Bruce Cassidy said that Nash was “in a significant level of discomfort” and probably wouldn’t even be able to get a helmet on his head this point given the swelling and cut.
Cassidy also indicated that Charlie McAvoy (left MCL) has a very good shot of playing Tuesday night in Tampa Bay if he continues to make progress as he has over the last few weeks.
Boston Bruins
Clearly at this point in the NHL regular season the name of the game is staying healthy, and right now the Bruins are watching more players drop with injuries as others are filtering back into the lineup. Here are the projected line combos and D-pairings for the Bruins based on pregame warm-ups at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Donato
Heinen-Backes-Gionta
Schaller-Acciari-Wingels
Chara-Holden
Krug-McQuaid
Grzelcyk-Miller
Khudobin