"Before practice, Bergeron took to the ice and skated in front of general manager Peter Chiarelli before participating in drills focusing on the power play and penalty kill. He was then cleared by the coaching staff to join in full practice. Bergeron participated in a light skate before Saturday morning’s pregame skate at the Garden and skated again Sunday before being cleared for Monday morning’s practice (WEEI)."
Sure sounds like Bergeron is going to play, which I find shocking. Especially after the death of Derek Boogaard, which could be linked to head shots. Bergeron has had a couple of bad concussions in his career, and I am shocked that they would let this happen after seeing Savard's career basically end.
Getting past that and looking to the game, if Bergeron plays like he did before the concussion that could be huge for the Bruins. I hope they stick with Seguin though, as he was probably the Bruins best player in game one. Maybe they can sit Thornton or someone like that. Anyways, this would definitely help the Bruins power play, and they are going to need their best defensive players out there with Tampa's awesome forwards. We'll keep you posted.
***UPDATE***
Bergeron did not don his usual yellow (second-line) jersey, though he did participate in line drills, rotating in on his regular line that now consists of Brad Marchand, Mark Recchi and Rich Peverley. He also took part in special teams drills prior, though he left the ice early without taking contact. While it seems the center is making quick progress, coach Claude Julien didn't offer too much on where the 25-year-old stands.
"He's going through the protocol of what he has to go through," Julien said. "There's not much more to update you guys on except [to say] when he is ready to go, you guys will know it. You can't predict how quickly or how soon it's going to be. It's just one of those situations where right now you see him going through today's skate. That's protocol. Right now we're not ready to make any comments, because he's just going through those stages."
Asked specifically about Bergeron's chances of playing in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals vs. the Lightning on Tuesday, Julien was not ready to lean either way.
"No comments," the coach said. "I don't know (WEEI)."
***UPDATE 2***
Bergeron skated this morning with the team, but as Scan pointed out in the comment section (and was confirmed today) Bergeron will be out Game 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment