The Boston Bruins announced between Sunday night and Monday morning that they had placed team captain Patrice Bergeron on IR.
What was originally only supposed to be a one or two-game absence turned into three straight when Bergeron announced he would not suit up against the Montreal Canadiens for tonight's game.
Those three games have now seen Bergeron land on the IR list. That means he needs to sit out for at least seven days from when was officially ruled out, which was against the Minnesota Wild back on March 16. That's a massive blow for a team that's not that deep down the middle.
In other words, the quickest Bergy can be back on the B's roster is March 24, which would be just in time for Thursday's important tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
While there hasn't been much noise regarding Bergeron's actual injury, it's been known that he's dealing with some type of laceration that he sustained on his arm in practice last week. The Boston training staff is going to reevaluate the captain in the coming days to make sure that no infection will occur in his cut once he returns to action.
In Bergeron's absence, the Bruins turned to centremen Tomas Nosek and Jack Studnicka to fill the void, but those tryouts were far from conclusive. Studnicka did pick up a helper in his last game, but also blocked a shot and is now questionable for tonight.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy has been very reluctant to move Charlie Coyle or Erik Haula off their respective lines, which means that Tomas Nosek will be the probable top-line center once again to take on the Habs.