TAMPA, Fla. — The Boston Bruins head into arguably their biggest game of the season and will have one of their biggest guns, who was questionable before the game.
Brad Marchand was missing from Tuesday’s morning skate at Amalie Arena while “under the weather,” and after being a game-time decision, was in the lineup against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a road game with significant divisional implications.
Marchand is coming off a red-hot month of February where he totaled six goals and 17 points in 14 games with plus-8 rating and his Perfection Line was poised to do some damage against the Bolts with them missing their captain Steve Stamkos after abdominal surgery.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
“Marchand is under the weather. He’s not feeling well so he’ll be a game-time decision,” said Bruce Cassidy. “If he’s out, then [Jake] DeBrusk will move into his spot and [Anders] Bjork will go back in.
“They’ve got Stamkos and a couple of guys out and we might have a guy [in Marchand] out. So it will be pretty comparable lineups. It will be a no excuse game and let the best team win.”
Jake DeBrusk skated with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak at Tuesday’s skate, DeBrusk has gone scoreless in his past 10 games.
Since Marchand is in the lineup, Anders Bjork was a healthy scratch once again.