After leaving in the first period of Saturday's preseason finale against the Philadelphia Flyers, Torey Krug has been diagnosed with an ankle injury.
Meeting the media Monday afternoon at the Bruins annual media day, general manager Don Sweeney updated the situation, stating that it was Krug's left ankle once again, but the issue is unrelated to his previous fracture. Krug will be in a walking boot for three weeks and will be reevaluated at that time.
Later Monday, Krug met with the media and shared his thoughts on the road ahead, as well as how things unfolded Saturday.
“I wasn’t in too much pain right away, probably with the adrenaline of the game," said Krug. "But as the period went on, I just wasn’t able to finish and got closer to the end and decided to go to the room and get some attention from the medical staff. They did their job and we started to realize something was wrong."
Saturday's game was just Krug's second of the preseason as he continued to work his way back from last season's knee injury. It's certainly another tough break for Krug.
"You work really hard throughout the summer to feel comfortable and put yourself in position to get back in the lineup. Obviously, it felt like I was just starting to work through timing issues and getting my gap back and things like that and then all of a sudden to have another setback is frustrating. It’s unfortunate, very unlucky and kind of a freak thing but it’s part of it, but you have to work through it and try to have the right attitude," added Krug.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy also provided an update on Matt Grzelcyk who missed Saturday's contest with an injury.
"Got through practice today, didn’t complete every drill, but he’s progressing well," said Cassidy. "Better answer tomorrow after practice. We’re hoping he’ll go full-go, all-contact. If he gets through that then obviously he looks good for Wednesday."
With the injury to Krug and the uncertainty surrounding Grzelcyk, it appears Urho Vaakanainen will be making the team. Cassidy admitted that either Grzelcyk, Vaakanainen or Charlie McAvoy will be taking Krug's spot on the Bruins power play.
"Typically, half-wall is where it starts, so Torey was good at running it from the top and getting to the half-wall with his movement, so it allowed Brad [Marchand] to move around who’s not a natural half-wall guy, get to the front of the net," said head coach Bruce Cassidy. "So that’s going to create a bit of an issue. We’ll have somebody young up there, more than likely Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk] or Vaakanainen or Charlie [McAvoy], those are our offensive guys, so they’ll be a bit of a learning curve there, so we’ll have to probably simplify it, get it into Pasta’s [David Pastrnak] hands more often"
It wasn't all bad news on Monday in regards to injuries. Patrice Begeron was no longer wearing a non-contact jersey and fully participated in Monday's practice. After practice, Bergeron declared himself ready to go Wednesday and said he felt no issues with his back today.
The Bruins lines looked like this:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak DeBrusk-Krejci-Heinen Donato-Kuraly-Backes Nordstrom/Bjork-Acciari-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy Moore-Carlo Vaakanainen-Miller Grzelcyk-Kampfer
Rask Halak