The Boston Bruins are going to have to stay afloat without two key cogs in Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara for at least a month — and likely longer.
Boston provided an official update on Bergeon Tuesday afternoon, noting that the veteran center suffered a rib and sternoclavicular injury in the second period of Friday’s game against the Stars. Bergeron will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
Bergeron suffered the injury after getting slammed into the boards by Radek Faksa, with the forward appearing to go shoulder-first into the boards at a high speed.
Patrice Bergeron rammed into the boards by Radek Faksa. He heads right to the room.
Not good. pic.twitter.com/3TcOO0OUVi
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 17, 2018
After exiting the game following the hit, Bergeron eventually returned to the contest, but was clearly hampered by the lingering injury — skating on the wing i
n order to avoid taking faceoff draws while failing to log a single second during overtime against the Stars.
This is just the latest in what has been a growing list of injuries for Bergeron, who missed the entire preseason while dealing with back spasms and offseason groin surgery.
Bergeron was limited to 64 games last season with the Black and Gold due to both the persistent groin injury and a broken foot, but still managed to tally
63 points in just 64 games as the man in the middle of the Bruins’ top forward line.
Still one of the top two-way pivots in the game, Bergeron was in the midst of a landmark season at the time of his injury — playing at a 112-point pace before Friday’s game against Dallas.
With most of Boston’s D corps already decimated with the loss of Chara,
Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo
,
John Moore, Urho Vaakanainen
and
Kevan Miller
— the Black and Gold now have another vacancy to fill without arguably their top skater for the foreseeable future.
BSJ Analysis
Given Bergeron’s status in the closing minutes of Friday’s game, it seemed like it wasn’t a matter of if, but how long the 33-year-old center would be out of commission for — with Bergeron barely able to stand upright while out on the ice.
Patrice Bergeron is hurting. pic.twitter.com/xPa7ueMoNk
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 17, 2018
Already dealing with secondary scoring issues, Boston will now have to split up a dominant top line that has accounted for 33 of the Bruins’ 58 goals this season — while also roll out a penalty-kill unit without arguably their most key skater up front.
And while players like
Noel Acciari, Jeremy Lauzon
and
Brad Marchand
have stepped up on the PK in Bergeron’s absence (8-for-8 the last two games), the loss of No. 37 has put Boston’s lineup in a blender.
During Saturday’s win over Arizona,
Bruce Cassidy
rolled out a top-six group with Marchand and
David Pastrnak
on separate lines — with
David Krejci
centering the top trio with Pastrnak and
Anders Bjork
.
Marchand joined a second line centered by
Joakim Nordstrom
and
Jake DeBrusk
to his right, with the line combining for a goal just 2:45 into the contest.
While Nordstrom has filled in admirably at just about anywhere the B’s have put him, Cassidy could opt to add more skill to his top six by inserting
Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson
at the pivot between DeBrusk and Marchand, with the young center in line to benefit from two hard-working wingers that can create plenty of space for themselves.
In the bottom six,
Colby Cave
is an option at center after getting recalled from Providence Tuesday afternoon.
An undrafted free agent out of the Western Hockey League, Cave may not have the fanfare as some other prospects in Boston’s pipeline, but the 23-year-old forward has been a force down in Providence this season — leading the team in scoring with 18 points over 15 games.
Regarded as a sound, two-way skater with the Baby Bruins, Cave seems to have turned the corner in terms of his offensive game, with the center just 17 points shy of his career-high in scoring already.
Boston pressed on valiantly last season without Bergeron — posting an 11-5-2 record without their go-to man in the middle. But the situation is much more desperate this season, given the myriad of other injuries afflicting the club.
Boston does have the personnel to scratch and claw its way to some points, but the toll needed to stay afloat without stalwarts like Bergeron and Chara is going to start to add up for the Black and Gold.