NEW YORK CITY — The Bruins are already down Joakim Nordstrom, Chris Wagner and David Krejci, and they may have lost another forward to injury after Par Lindholm took a late hit midway through Sunday night’s win over the Rangers.
The versatile Lindholm absorbed the hit in the second period a few beats after breaking the puck out and throwing an outlet pass to his left wing when Rangers youngster Lias Andersson caught him high with a finishing attempt at a check. Lindholm was done for the night after eight shifts and 7:04 of ice time in the 7-4 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, and Bruce Cassidy didn’t have much of an update following the B’s victory.
“Par left and obviously didn’t come back,” said Cassidy of Lindholm, who has a goal and a plus-2 rating in seven games this season for the Bruins. “I don’t have an update on him other than they told me he wasn’t coming back. An upper body injury. We’ll probably have better news [on Monday].”
There was no penalty called on the play and it remains to be seen if the NHL Department of Player Safety will be looking into it, though there was nothing too egregious about the hit aside from the lateness to it.
The Bruins already have Anders Bjork and Peter Cehlarik up on emergency recall due to injuries up front, and they would have to dip into the reserves even more deeply if Krejci isn’t ready to return after missing the last four games with an upper body injury. Cehlarik struggled in his season debut on Sunday as he finished with zero shots on net, a minus-2 rating and he took an offensive zone penalty in one of his first shifts of the game.
“I thought Pete was okay. He didn’t seem to get his legs under him,” said Cassidy. “The funny thing about going down [to Providence] is that you play a lot, you’re one of the better players. Then you need to be ready to go up here and that’s the tough challenge, and I think that’s where [Anders] Bjork has been excellent. He’s sat for long stretches and given us good energy, and I think Pete is going to have to do that at times. He traveled today and it was a little more of a challenge to get his legs going, but I thought he was fine.”
Paul Carey might be the first natural call-up for the Bruins based on a strong start to the season if another player is needed and based on an injury to Brendan Gaunce after he was taken out by a dirty open ice head-hunting hit earlier in the AHL season. Cassidy was, however, hoping that Krejci (upper body) would be ready for Tuesday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks after sitting out this weekend’s back-to-back games against St. Louis and the Rangers.
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