Bruins Notes: Injuries continue to pile up, Lauzon recalled, Rask named to All-Star Game

It looks as though the Bruins are going to be closing out 2019 with a shorthanded crew in New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking to the media at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday, Bruce Cassidy confirmed that four players will not make the trip to Newark — Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy, David Krejci and Connor Clifton. 

Krug and McAvoy — who was placed on IR Monday morning — are set to miss their third game in a row after getting injured on Dec. 23 during a win over the Capitals. Connor Clifton exited Sunday’s win against the Sabres due to an upper-body injury and is day-to-day, while Krejci has been hampered with a lower-body ailment. 

Cassidy did note that Krejci has not been ruled out for Thursday’s home matchup against the Blue Jackets, while Krug potentially could have been cleared for Tuesday’s tilt with New Jersey. For now, though, Boston is not trying to risk any further injury to Krug.

"We're erring on the side of caution a little bit here too as well," Cassidy said of Krug. "He's very close, but would the extra couple days help him? We have to discuss that internally."

With Boston’s blue line in rough shape, the Bruins opted to call Jeremy Lauzon up from Providence on Monday. Lauzon, 22, has logged 35 games down in the AHL this year, recording a goal and adding nine assists. 

The young defenseman held his own last season with Boston, averaging 15:32 of ice time over 16 games, logging heavy minutes on the B's penalty kill.

"Hard game," Cassidy said when asked to describe Lauzon’s game. “Physical, competing well. I think with Jeremy it's always about, can he sustain a level of puck play at this level where he makes a good first pass a reasonable amount of the time?

“We're not going to ask him to go on the power play or anything like that. He's much more of a killer or a shutdown guy. We've seen him do that last year at the start of the year - I think it was Dallas or Arizona - did a great job.”

Rask named to All-Star team: David Pastrnak will not be the lone Bruin heading to St. Louis for the 2020 NHL All-Star Game, as the league announced on Monday that Tuukka Rask will also play for the Atlantic Division team. 

Rask ranks seventh in the NHL with a 2.31 goals against average and is tied for ninth in save percentage (.923) and wins (15). This will be the second All-Star game appearance for both Rask and Pastrnak — who was named Atlantic Division captain earlier this month.

Boston has a chance to bring another Bruin to St. Louis, as Patrice Bergeron was named to the 2020 NHL All-Star Last Man In vote — in which fans can vote for four (one from each division) more players to join their respective All-Star rosters. 

Brad Marchand, tied for third in the NHL in scoring, was not named to the 2020 All-Star Team. 

Kuhlman sent down: The Bruins did make an additional roster move on Monday, assigning Karson Kuhlman back down to Providence. Kuhlman, who has missed over two months of action after suffering a fractured tibia back on Oct. 19, will look to get back up to speed down in the AHL ranks before potentially rejoining the big club. 

A candidate to take over one of the middle-six vacancies on Boston’s roster, Kuhlman will be looking for a fresh start come 2020, as the winger failed to get on the scoresheet for his first eight games of the 2019-20 campaign.