BRIGHTON, Mass – The Bruins will be without left winger Jake DeBrusk for at least a couple more games after suffering a lower body injury in the loss to the Montreal Canadiens earlier this week.
DeBrusk complained of an issue the morning following that Tuesday loss and didn’t make the trip to Detroit earlier this week, and is expected to miss both Sunday night’s game vs. the Flyers and Tuesday night’s home date against the Florida Panthers as well.
With DeBrusk’s offensive pop out of the lineup and off the second line, the Bruins have been forced to reshuffle the deck a bit with their forwards and slide Charlie Coyle over from third line center to second line right wing with David Krejci.
“It’s a lower body injury. He was evaluated and my guess is that he’s probably looking more at the weekend [against Toronto] than Tuesday [for a return],” said Cassidy of DeBrusk, who was the next leading scorer at 27 goals scored last season behind the big three of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. “We’ll have a better idea when we get to those practices Wednesday or Thursday.”
It’s too bad as DeBrusk appeared to be starting to heat up offensively and had scored goals in two straight games before going scoreless in 17:07 of ice time in the loss to Montreal.
In other Bruins health updates:
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
*David Backes (upper body) was once again present at the Bruins practice facility on Sunday “and feeling better”, but there is no timetable for his return. Backes has been out three games and counting.
*John Moore (shoulder surgery) skated with the Bruins on the practice ice during morning skate but is wearing a no-contact sweater and is still weeks away from a return. Kevan Miller was given a day off the ice on Sunday, and Bruce Cassidy indicated earlier this week that his return is probably a couple of weeks away at this point.
*Brett Ritchie (upper body) wasn’t on the ice on Sunday morning, but the hope is that he’ll be on the practice ice on Monday and back in the process of working back into the lineup. Cassidy called it “a curveball” that Ritchie wasn’t able to play in Detroit on Friday, so there is some uncertainty about how quickly he’ll get back into the lineup.
MORE HAGGS: NHL needs to revamp offside challenges>>>
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.