Boston has prioritized ‘maintenance’ & recovery for Patrice Bergeron, but a lingering injury is once again looming over B’s top center

On Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres, Patrice Bergeron returned to the Bruins’ lineup after a two-game absence — stuck on the shelf due to a nagging lower-body injury. 

The 34-year-old pivot was as advertised despite the recent layoff, logging 18:16 of ice time, recording an assist and winning 61.1% of his faceoffs in an eventual 3-2 victory for Boston. 

The following morning, he was nowhere to be found on the ice at Warrior Ice Arena for practice. Bruce Cassidy managed to assuage fears of another flare-up after the morning skate — noting that his top-line center’s absence was a prescribed maintenance day in order to keep him fresh for the long grind that is an 82-game regular season. 

In a perfect world, Bergeron wouldn’t have to adhere to a “lighter” workload. But given the nature of Bergeron’s lower-body injury — one that hasn’t seemed to subside since groin injuries started to regularly plague him over two years ago — Cassidy and his staff are quick to exhibit caution when it comes to the B’s top forward. 

"I think Bergy would like to practice every day - we're mindful of it," Cassidy said on Friday. "He’s more open about when the timing of having a maintenance day is. I think before, he did not want to be that guy. He's got a lot of pride, he wants to get out there and he wants to work on his game. It's two-fold — he doesn't want the other guys to see him not practicing and he wants to get better.

“We've had to encourage him to do that and he's bought into it now with the help of the medical staff. They have a good feel for that. I don’t have a strong opinion, when he wants a day, I trust Bergy in pretty much every area.”

Bergeron didn’t look particularly rusty the following night, recording four assists in Boston’s 5-4 comeback victory over the Minnesota Wild. 

And yet,



despite Bergeron's strong play since his return, it appears as though maintenance and recovery can only go so far at times when it comes to keeping this lower-body injury at bay.

Following Monday's practice at Warrior Ice Arena, in which Bergeron was not a participant once again, Cassidy noted that the veteran forward will not travel with the team for it's two-game road trek up to Canada to take on the Canadiens (Tuesday) and Senators (Wednesday).

"Lower body," Cassidy said. "Not going to travel. Again, other than that, no timeline on it. We just want to make sure when he's in the lineup, he's not going to put himself at further risk. Medical staff will stay on top of it. ... Same area. They think this is the best way to go for now.”

With Bergeron out, Boston's lineup is set to be overhauled once again — with David Krejci getting bumped up to the top line to skate alongside David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. Krejci stands as solid insurance during the stretches in which Bergeron needs to be held out, as a 63-46-88 line has outscored the competition, 4-0, during 33:28 of 5v5 TOI together. Still, they haven't been immune when it comes to opposing scoring chances, with the competition holding a 10-4 edge in high-danger scoring chances during that same stretch.

Krejci might be penciled in up top, but the rest of the lineup is up in the air, especially with Brett Ritchie now ruled out once again due to a recurring infection issue that has also plagued him for weeks now.

"That is a recurring injury, I think they’re going to look at it a little more long term and how to deal with this so it doesn’t come back," Cassidy said of Ritchie. "He won’t travel either."

Even with Par Lindholm, recovering from a cut that required 18 stitches to close, expected to play this week, Boston called up Jack Studnicka and Brendan Gaunce from Providence on Monday afternoon, which could force Boston to move a few pivots back to the wing in order to carve out a beneficial spot for its AHL players.

"He might," Cassidy said when asked if Sean Kuraly could switch to the wing. "Lindholm can play between (Joakim) Nordstrom and (Chris) Wagner if we do that. ... We can move (Charlie) Coyle to the wing if we put Jack or Gaunce, if they’re the guys in the middle. There’s some options there, or Kuraly to the wing, for that matter. Krech will go up and play with Marchy and Pasta.”

With Krejci up top and Coyle likely getting promoted to Bergeron's bumper position on the top power-play unit, Boston does have the personnel to at least absorb some of the blow that comes from taking to the ice without No. 37.

For the short term, at least. It remains to be seen how much rest and recovery can successful solve Bergeron's ongoing injury woes, especially after an offseason in which he was able to avoid going under the knife. Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, dealing with a hernia injury since training camp, opted to bite the bullet earlier this month — undergoing surgery to correct the issue, but forcing the Penguins to soldier on without their best player for a minimum of six weeks.

Such a course isn't on the table quite yet for Bergeron. But if maintenance days and other off-ice work continues to not yield results, Bergeron could find himself taking similar steps, much to him and his team's dismay.

"I don’t know if Crosby is compared to Bergy — if it would require a similar treatment to make it all go away or not," Cassidy said. "I haven’t been in those discussions. … Could that come up down the road? I guess it’s possible. Kind of holding my nose from that particular avenue of treatment. We’re going to keep him off the ice certain days, other days, he’s full go. This time, we can’t play him like this, because he’ll just aggravate it. That’s what they tell me and off we go.”