Patrice Bergeron questionable for season opener vs. Predators

Patrice Bergeron did not practice Wednesday and remains questionable for the season opener against the Nashville Predators Thursday night at TD Garden.

The alternate captain has been dealing with a lower-body injury and has not participated in a full practice this week. He was given a maintenance day Monday and only skated for a few minutes on Tuesday. Bruce Cassidy said there’s no update and he will have a better idea Thursday morning whether or not Bergeron will be available.

“We would rather him take the extra day and do whatever we can to get him ready for tomorrow and if that means some time off today that’s fine,” Cassidy said. “Tomorrow I can’t predict how he’ll be and we hope it’s just a minor setback. Yes, there is concern, simply because he didn’t skate today.”

With Bergeron sidelined, Ryan Spooner served as the center between Brad Marchand and Anders Bjork on the team’s top line. Bergeron, who had offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia, said his current injury is not related. His longtime linemate believes Bergeron will be in the lineup on Thursday.

“He’s like Superman, he’ll play through anything,” Marchand said.

Veteran forward David Backes was also “under the weather” so he was told to stay home and he did not practice.

Cassidy admitted he’s going to take a different approach this season when it comes to handling time off for the veteran core. He spoke with Bergeron about it on Wednesday and stressed that it’s a long season.

However, it’s not easy for a coach to tell a pro hockey player to take a day off for any circumstance.

“We have so many young guys here that we’re trying to build habits into practice, for him, as you get older in your career you monitor yourself a little more and then you bridge that versus the competitive nature of the individual that wants to get better every day,” explained Cassidy. “It’s hard for me to tell a veteran player who’s been in this league, and has had that much success, how not to practice.

“He gives it his all and (injuries) are some of the residual effects from a competitive person. You push yourself in practice and get the odd twinge here or there, so we hope it’s not serious and we’ll go from there.”

Cassidy has had similar conversations with 40-year-old captain Zdeno Chara, Backes and David Krejci.

“Each individual is different, and Zee is the same way,” Cassidy said. “He’s very competitive and goes all-out in practice. It’s hard to discourage that, because it’s nice for the younger guys to see that every day and grow in that culture.”