TORONTO – Patrice Bergeron will miss his second consecutive game with a lower body injury and hasn’t rejoined the team as the Bruins ready to take on the Maple Leafs in Toronto's home opener Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre.
Claude Julien had no update on No. 37 as the Bruins went through an optional morning skate at the ACC and simply said Bergeron is still “day-to-day” while not traveling with the team. It’s a shame, really, because it would have been a fun atmosphere watching the best defensive forward in the game match up against the electrifying Auston Matthews after he scored four goals in his NHL debut earlier this week in Ottawa.
Instead, David Backes will again center Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak after that trio combined for six goals in the 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
Tuukka Rask was out for the optional skate on Saturday morning and was the first goalie off the ice, but it’s up in the air whether Rask or Anton Khudobin will get the call vs. the Leafs. Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, John-Michael Liles, Brad Marchand and David Krejci all skipped the morning skate and will instead focus their efforts into stopping the Leafs, who showed it can be offensively explosive with youngsters Matthews and Mitch Marner.
“They play with a lot of skill. They’ve got some talented forwards, so we have to play smart. We can’t play sloppy. We just have to play, and believe, in our system,” said Marchand. “I’ve played against [Auston Matthews] before, and he’s a great player. There’s no question about that. He’s gonna have a great career.
“But there are a lot of kids with talent on their team and a lot of kids that can do some damage on that team. So we’ve got to be careful out there.”
The line combos and D-pairings for Saturday night should be exactly the same as they were on Thursday night in Columbus:
Boston Bruins
Marchand-Backes-Pastrnak
Spooner-Krejci-Heinen
Beleskey-Czarnik-Hayes
Moore-Nash-Acciari/Schaller
Chara-Carlo
Liles-C. Miller
Krug-O’Gara
Morrow
Rask
Khudobin