Kevan Miller misses practice after suffering injury in Tuesday loss

BRIGHTON -- It remains to be seen if it’s going to open a spot for a defenseman on the Bruins roster, but veteran blueliner Kevan Miller is under evaluation for a possible lower body injury after leaving Tuesday night’s preseason loss to Montreal in Quebec City after getting hit with a puck.

Coach Claude Julien said “there’s no reason to think it’s bad,” but it sounds like Miller is day-to-day pending a determination from Boston’s medical staff.

Miller exited early in Tuesday's game and was missing from practice Wednesday at Warrior Ice Arena.

“He got hit with a puck last night, and that’s why he didn’t finish the game. So he’s just being evaluated,” said Julien. “Right now I’d say there’s no reason to think it’s bad, but who knows nowadays. So we’re just making sure he’s evaluated, and probably by tomorrow we’ll have a clear indication on that. We’re hoping it’s minor, and that we’re just being extremely cautious on that.”

It raises an interesting scenario if Miller's out for any period of time. Christian Ehrhoff is on a professional tryout agreement, and Brandon Carlo and Robbie O’Gara continuing to impress as big, young, mobile, stay-at-home defensemen.

“If you look at O’Gara and Carlo, they’re both big-sized defensemen but they both move well,” said Julien. “They both lack a little bit of experience because they’ve never played pro before, but we’ve liked what we’ve seen. Just being with the team and playing some preseason games is great. And at the end of the day, if we have some injuries right now, we have to make sure we have guys that are ready.”

Here are the line combos and D-pairings for the Bruins at Wednesday’s practice with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Backes, Ehrhoff and David Backes getting the day off given their World Cup of hockey workload over the last few weeks: