BOSTON – It was almost too good to be true, and so the Bruins had to expect somebody would drop out of their lineup during a busy stretch of seven games in 11 days leading up to Christmas.
That “somebody” turned out to be David Krejci, who was out for Monday night’s 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets with an upper-body injury that cropped up at the end of that day’s morning skate.
Krejci has missed 13 games now this season, with the majority of them due to a bad back that has acted up at points this season. When healthy, Krejci has been pretty good with five goals and 14 points in 18 games, but the Bruins were able to survive without him by placing Ryan Spooner between Jake DeBrusk and Anders Bjork in a fast, skilled kid line.
Each of those three forwards had points in the blowout win over the Blue Jackets, and the hope is that the Bruins will get more of that from them with another game together against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night. Krejci has already been ruled out of Tuesday night’s game as well with the upper body issue, but beyond that is unknown with the Bruins scheduled to play two games in the final four days leading into the holiday break.
“I feel bad today because when I left the ice [Krejci] was, from my understanding, he was fine. It’s an upper-body injury; he didn’t feel good after he got off the ice and talked to the trainers about it,” said Cassidy. “[Krejci] is going to deal with that, he’ll be out…he won’t travel with us. He’ll be out tomorrow, but it will be a day to day [injury after that].”
The Bruins would love to get Krejci back as quickly as possible, but the return of Spooner to good health at the end of last week gives the B’s another NHL-caliber option in the middle while giving Krejci some time to recover. Given the upper-body/back issues that Krejci has already dealt with this season, it might be wise to take advantage of the holiday break to give him an extended rest with plenty of hockey still go in the following four months.