The Bruins have a big week ahead of them with three games against Tampa and Toronto starting with tonight’s tilt against the Lightning at TD Garden, but things just got a little bit easier for them.
The Maple Leafs announced that John Tavares will be out for the next two weeks after suffering a broken finger in Wednesday night’s loss to the Washington Capitals. That means the Leafs captain will be out for both Saturday night’s home tilt against the Bruins and the Tuesday night finale to the home-and-home series at TD Garden.
Tavares has three goals and seven points in eight games thus far this season, but it’s still a massive loss for Toronto even if he isn’t off to the hottest start among Leafs forwards. Unfortunately, it may not be too much of an advantage for the Bruins with top-6 center David Krejci also banged up with an upper body injury and out for at least Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Krejci’s availability for both games against the Maple Leafs is also in question after being forced out of Monday afternoon’s win over the Ducks, and being forced to sit out a divisional game against Tampa Bay tonight.
Tavares had just one goal and two points along with a minus-2 in four games against the Bruins last season, and traditionally it’s been Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner that have done most of the damage offensively vs. the B’s in recent seasons.
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