With Bergeron out with head injury and Marchand in line for sizable suspension, how do Bruins remain afloat?

In a predicament that shouldn’t surprise anyone who watched last night’s debacle play out on the TD Garden ice, the Bruins are likely going to have to trudge ahead without their top-two forwards for the next little while.

A little over 14 hours after Patrice Bergeron fell awkwardly into the boards during the third period of Boston’s 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh, the star center was not present during Boston’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena, with Bruce Cassidy already ruling him out for Thursday’s showdown against the Hurricanes due to an upper-body injury.

Brad Marchand did take part in some segments of Boston’s practice but, after blowing a gasket against Pens netminder Tristan Jarry on Tuesday night, it’s pretty much a given that the lethal left wing won’t be getting into game action for the foreseeable future. 

Considering the optics of Bergeron’s collision into the boards — coupled with the B’s captain’s extensive history with concussions — the Bruins are going to be extremely cautious when it comes to giving him the green light to return. 

It's involving his head.  So we have to be careful,” Cassidy said of Bergeron. “This is a guy that's had head injuries in the past. We want to make sure everything checks out. He wants to make sure everything checks out. So in the immediate term here, he didn't skate today. Won't play tomorrow.  And hopefully, he's in good shape in the next few days, but we're going to obviously take as much time as we need."

As for Marchand, the writing was on the wall as soon as he lost his cool against Jarry that he would incur the wrath of George Parros and the NHL Department of Player Safety.

And sure enough, the league announced on Wednesday morning that Marchand was offered an in-person hearing via Zoom in regards to his actions against the Penguins goalie. 

While a suspension of five or more games is not guaranteed, the league announcing an “in-person” hearing does authorize them to dole out discipline beyond just that five-game threshold. And considering Marchand’s lengthy rap sheet, I think you can put two and two together.

BSJ Analysis

To be blunt, there’s really no easy fix at all when it comes to filling the void of Marchand AND Bergeron out of the lineup for an extended stretch.

In a vacuum, you can have beef with the NHL Department of Player Safety for opening the door for a suspension spanning more than five games — especially on the same night where Marcus Foligno kneed Adam Lowry in the head, but was not offered an in-person hearing. 

Even postgame, Jarry more or less let Marchand off the hook despite the B’s winger trying to knock his block off. 

"I think it's just the heat of the moment, everyone's battling hard out there,” Jarry said. “He's just trying to get the puck to the net and I think the team did a great job. ... It's part of the game and it stays on the ice."

But let’s get real here. Marchand losing his cool when Tuesday’s game was all but over was a foolish move that just can’t happen from one of Boston’s leaders — especially considering his lengthy disciplinary history.

"I don't know if surprised is the right word,” Cassidy said when asked if he didn’t agree with the NHL’s decision for an in-person hearing. “You never know how they're going to deal with it. Obviously, I do believe you have to protect goaltenders in those situations. We'd want ours protected."

Regardless of what you think of his move, the Department of Player Safety is ready (and absolutely willing) to throw the book at Marchand whenever the opportunity arises — and the B’s top offensive forward made things awfully easy for the league to drop the hammer on him.

In the short term, the Bruins at least have a contingency plan in place on the wing — with both David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall slotted up to the top line. But without Bergeron in place down the middle, Boston’s center pipeline is looking awfully barren right now. 

Boston might be able to slap a temporary band-aid over its forward corps by just giving the Haula line more reps in a featured role. But after that trio, there’s little in terms of elite scoring punch, with Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk and Craig Smith serving as a de-facto second line for the time being.

On Wednesday, it was Trent Frederic and Tomas Nosek that served as 3C and 4C, respectively,  but Cassidy did note that the Bruins could pull from the Providence roster if they wanted to inject a bit more skill in the lineup.

This sure seems like a great opportunity to give Jack Studnicka another look at 3C if Bergeron is indeed going to be on the shelf for the next few games— with the 22-year-old prospect offering a bit more potential than what you might get from a bottom-six unit with Frederic situated in the middle.

Sooner or later, the Bruins are going to have to find out what they have in Studnicka, who has posted 15 points over his last 18 games down in the AHL ranks. Might as well make the most of what is still a pretty miserable development for this team.  

"Yeah, we have to talk about that,” Cassidy said when asked if any AHL call-ups are on the way. “You know, losing Bergy in the middle, we still have Lazar, who's played in the middle for us. Freddy is available, who's played center. So it's not so much the position. It's the player we're losing, who plays in all situations. So we will have to look at that and definitely will when going on the road.”

Still, even if there are players in place to step into the sizable minutes left in wake of Bergeron and Marchand’s absence — Hall might have said it best on Wednesday afternoon.

There’s no real surefire solution when you lose two players of that caliber — especially over a longer stretch of games. 

“Not to give you the cliche, but everyone needs to add a little bit more,” Hall said. “I think that's true in a sense, but replacing your captain and a player like Marshy is not just as simple as everyone doing a bit more. We're gonna miss those guys, there's no doubt. So you have to find a way to all be the best version of ourselves and play collectively as a team. Not to say that we're gonna have to play perfect hockey or anything like that, but we're gonna have to be dialed in."