BRIGHTON, Mass – Brad Marchand was the new player missing from Bruins practice on Friday while utilizing a maintenance day to deal with a lower-body issue that’s nagged him recently. Bruce Cassidy assured that it was minor in nature for Boston’s leading scorer and the expectation is that he’ll be fine to play on Saturday night against the Washington Capitals.
“It’s a maintenance day for the lower body…just needed a little rest,” said Cassidy, when asked if the absence was due to Marchand flexing his knee Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights after a collision in the corner. “I truly believe this is nothing serious. I know you’ve heard me say that before, but it’s just a precautionary thing so we could give him a day [off the ice].
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“He’s a worker and always wants to be out there, so for his own good we’re just shutting the engines down for a day.”
Clearly, that sounds like the typical bumps and bruises that a top player is going to absorb along the way to a team-leading eight goals and 13 points in 11 games this season. Still, bells and whistles are clearly going off every time one of Boston’s regulars is missing from the Warrior Ice Arena practice sheet with so many core players already on the shelf due to injuries.
The Bruins can’t afford to lose Marchand, or anybody else for that matter, with David Krejci, Ryan Spooner, David Backes, Noel Acciari, Adam McQuaid and Anton Khudobin all banged up and not ready to play. Here are the line combos and D-pairings from Friday’s practice with the Capitals coming in for a Saturday night date at TD Garden:
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Vatrano-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Kuraly-Schaller
Heinen-Szwarz-Bjork
Beleskey-Nash-Czarnik
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Postma-Miller
Rask
McIntyre