It was good news in the health department for the Bruins in the 24 hours following their loss to the Maple Leafs. Claude Julien told reporters in Winnipeg that Tuukka Rask was likely to get the start Monday night against the Jets after being too dinged up to make the Saturday night game against Toronto. It appeared the Bruins goaltender tweaked something in his leg making a full extension save vs. the Blue Jackets in the season opener, and he wasn’t on the ice for team practice on the day following the opening win vs. Columbus.
Furthermore, Patrice Bergeron (lower body injury) had resumed skating over the weekend after missing the first two games of the season with an injury suffered in practice, and hadn’t been ruled out from playing Monday night against the Jets as well.
“Right now I’m pretty optimistic [about Rask] and right now I’ve got him scheduled to go [against Winnipeg],” said Julien to reporters on Sunday. “[Bergeron] has been skating. On [Monday] morning we’ll give you an update when we have it.”
It was clear watching the bad faceoff numbers, the imbalance in production among the forward lines and the offense surrendered to Toronto’s top lines that they badly need No. 37 to return to good health as quickly as possible. Despite all of that, it would be surprising to see Bergeron show to play in Winnipeg rather than waiting until the Bruins return home for their TD Garden opener on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.