BRIGHTON -- The news is out for Kevan Miller after he spent Monday night in a Toronto area hospital following a fired puck to the throat, and it’s not all that great. The rugged stay-at-home D-man will miss at least five weeks after suffering a cartilage injury to his larynx, and will be re-evaluated at that point for a return to the Bruins lineup.
That means once again the Bruins will be a lot smaller, a lot meeker and a lot less able to seriously fight back if other teams start taking aim with big, bruising hits toward their best players. The big boys being on the injury shelf is part of the reason why 5-foot-9, 181-pound Brad Marchand has been left to defend his teammates and leads the Bruins in fighting majors this season.
That’s what happened before with Zdeno Chara and Miller both out of the lineup and Adam McQuaid traded to the New York Rangers, and it’s something they’ll be bracing for again over the next month-plus.
“It will be probably at least a four-week injury,” said Bruce Cassidy. “It’s fortunate for the person first, right? He plays his heart out and it’s two blocked shots that have put him on the shelf, but that’s his game. Hopefully when he does come back he’s healthy and ready to go. We’ll miss him. I thought when he was out we weren’t as gritty of a team or as hard to play against. So that’s the part that we really miss.”
Miller was hit in the neck with a John Tavares shot toward the end of the first period in Monday night’s 4-2 loss for the Bruins in Toronto after having just returned from a hand injury that cost him nearly a month of action. Needless to say, the undermanned, injury-ravaged Bruins are also going to miss Miller in their lineup both in the D-zone and on the penalty kill after playing him an average of 24-plus minutes in the three full games since his return.
The good news for the Bruins: Brandon Carlo (upper body) returned to the practice ice on Wednesday at Warrior Ice Arena without any restrictions, and it appears he might have a chance to play soon if not even Thursday against the New York Islanders. Carlo was skating in a pairing with Steve Kampfer at Wednesday’s practice after being out since Nov. 10 with an upper body injury, but could be a game-time decision for Thursday.
The injury also means that Providence call-ups Connor Clifton and Jeremy Lauzon aren’t likely going anywhere anytime soon as they’ve been playing with the size, strength and bite to their games that many of the remaining Bruins D-men aren’t able to supply.
Boston Bruins
With the Bruins now still missing Miller, Chara, Charlie McAvoy and Urho Vaakanainen, however, they are down a whole lot of size and production from their back end while continuing to try and endure their own endless injury gauntlet. But bottom line: the Bruins are missing their two toughest guys (Miller and Chara) from their lineup most willing to stick up for his teammates and inspire fear in opponents.
Those kinds of absences are going to leave a mark.
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