Already without Torey Krug, the Bruins have added three more to their injury list. For the second straight game, the Bruins will be without Charlie McAvoy, Kevan Miller and David Backes as they take on the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night.
Finishing off their four-game road trip through Canada with a stop in Ottawa, the Bruins are looking for their first win of the road trip. The team is coming off of back-to-back overtime losses.
With McAvoy and Miller back in Boston for further evaluation, Steven Kampfer and Urho Vaakanainen made their season debuts in Saturday's 2-1 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
The extent of the injuries to the three are unknown. McAvoy hasn't been feeling right since Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. However, head coach Bruce Cassidy believes the issue comes from a hit he took earlier this season.
Miller has been out with a hand injury suffered after blocking a shot against the Oilers on Thursday. Cassidy and the Bruins will have a better idea on Miller's status when the team returns to Boston after Tuesday's contest.
Backes was a late scratch on Saturday after taking a hit to the head from Oilers' forward Matt Benning. He was sent back to Boston with concussion-like symptoms stemming from the hit. Last season, Backes' playoff run ended in game 5 of the second around after a hit by J.T. Miller. Backes was concussed on the play.
The injury news is not all that bad for the Bruins though. Krug has been skating for the last week or so and was scheduled to join the Bruins in Ottawa on Monday. Thanks to some flight issues, Krug was grounded in Boston, but made it out to Ottawa in time to join the team Tuesday morning.
Bruins projected lines: Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak Danton Heinen-David Krejci-Jake DeBrusk Anders Bjork-Joakim Nordstrom-Chris Wagner Ryan Donato-Sean Kuraly-Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo John Moore-Steven Kampfer Urho Vaakanainen-Matt Grzelcyk
Tuukka Rask
Senators projected lines: Mikkel Boedker-Matt Duchene-Colin White Ryan Dzingel-Chris Tierney-Mark Stone Alex Formenton-Paul Carey-Bobby Ryan Magnus Paajarvi-Zack Smith-Tom Pyatt
Thomas Chabot-Dylan Demelo Maxime Lajoie-Chris Wideman Mark Borowiecki-Christian Jaros
Criag Anderson
What I'm watching for After Monday's practice in Ottawa, Cassidy wouldn't reveal his starting goalie, but did admit that he is leaning towards Tuukka Rask.
"We wanted to make sure he got his work in," said Cassidy. "I'll talk to [goalie coach Bob Essensa] and Tuukka, make sure he feels good physically, ready to go, good about his game. That's the way we're leaning, but it could just as easily be Thursday for him.
Halak has been the better of the two goalies so far. The Bruins need Rask to figure things out and get back to his game. Rask has yet to have himself a complete game, he needs one sooner rather than later.