BRIGHTON, Mass – The Bruins will get one defenseman back Tuesday night in Carolina, but it looks like they’ll be down another one after Saturday night’s loss. Matt Grzelcyk was missing from practice Monday at Warrior Ice Arena with a lower-body injury suffered in Saturday’s loss to the Canadiens and is doubtful for the Hurricanes game.
“He got a lower-body injury against Montreal and he played through it. He did not feel great today and he couldn’t practice. He’s doubtful for tomorrow [vs. Carolina], but we’ll have to see how he does,” said Cassidy. “On the flip side, Torey Krug practiced fully. I’d expect him to go in. If Grzelcyk recovers well enough to play [on Tuesday] then we’d have to put him in for Lauzon or [Steve] Kampfer.”
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With Grzelcyk in doubt, the Bruins have re-recalled Jeremy Lauzon on an emergency basis to potentially play for a third consecutive game vs. Carolina. The Bruins are also expecting Torey Krug (left foot) to be able to make his regular season debut against the Hurricanes on Tuesday night as well, and if all goes according to plan then he’d slide into the lineup for Grzelcyk.
David Backes returned to the practice ice on Monday after missing the last four games with a suspected concussion suffered in Edmonton, but was also ruled out for Tuesday night’s game vs. the Hurricanes. Charlie McAvoy had skated with Backes prior to Saturday morning’s skate, but wasn’t on the ice today prior to Monday practice. It’s unclear whether it was a scheduled day off for McAvoy, or the second-year D-man had a setback in his return from an “upper body injury” also suspected to be a concussion.
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Cassidy confirmed that it will be Jaroslav Halak as the starting goaltender for Tuesday night in Carolina with the team undecided on a goaltender for Saturday vs. the Nashville Predators.
Boston Bruins
With the Bruins injury update list mounting on a daily basis, here are the projected line combos and D-pairings based on the Monday practice:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Heinen
Donato-Nordstrom-Bjork
Wagner-Kuraly-Acciari
Chara-Carlo
Krug-Moore
Kampfer-Lauzon
Halak
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