BRIGHTON, Mass. — As if the absence of David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase wasn’t concerning enough for the Boston Bruins, Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask also left the ice a few minutes into Thursday’s camp practice at Warrior Ice Arena.
There didn’t seem to be any incident where Rask suffered an injury on Thursday, but he did leave the ice for a few minutes on Tuesday as well after getting hit with an errant shot about midway through the morning session.
Unlike with Pastrnak and Kase, the details of Rask’s absence from the ice were a bit more plentiful after the fact given what everybody saw happen on the ice.
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“I think he got stung the other day with a shot hitting him in the wrong spot. So maybe that was acting up on him today,” said Cassidy. “I’m going to get an update in a little bit. If there was anything serious they have not come to me, so it’s typically a good sign if [the medical staff] doesn’t come right to you. Maybe it’s a little bit of bad luck [getting hit] in the same spot over a couple of days and it will sort itself out.
“These will be some of the bumps and bruises that are going to appear now with our group. We’ve had three good sessions now and we ramped up the physicality today, so I’d expect that will be part of it over the next week until the bodies start getting used to it.”
The difference between Rask getting hit Tuesday and Thursday was that he didn’t return to practice this time around, so that bears watching over the next few days.
But the Bruins have three other goaltenders — Jaroslav Halak, Dan Vladar and Maxime Lagace — so they should be in good shape in terms of Return to Play camp numbers if Rask needs a day or two to nurse whatever practice injury he’s suffered in the last couple of days.