It's been a slow and steady rehabilitation for Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who has been working his way back from a groin injury since last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.
Bergeron has been skating with the team on a regular basis but hasn't appeared in a preseason game yet. After practice on Tuesday at Warrior Ice Arena, he revealed his target date.
"I'm slowly feeling better on the ice and more comfortable and I'd like to be in Saturday for sure. So if things go according to plan, I think that'll be my first game back," he said.
After hosting the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, the Bruins will host the Chicago Blackhawks in the preseason finale on Saturday. That Blackhawks team will not resemble a NHL product, because the Blackhawks that are starting the season depart for Europe on Thursday.
So Bergeron will get a chance to test his health against AHL competition, and hopefully there won't be a member of the Rockford IceHogs looking to make a name for himself by giving Bergeron's groin an introduction to a stick blade.
No update on Krejci
Bergeron's return to full health, most importantly for the season opener Oct. 3 at Dallas, has become even more urgent with David Krejci's injury status up in the air. After leaving Boston's preseason game in the first period Monday, Krejci didn't practice Tuesday.
Coach Bruce Cassidy tried to tamp down the angst Tuesday much the way he did after Monday's game.
"Obviously didn't skate today. We'll re-evaluate tomorrow. Again I don't think right now it's anything serious, but we're going to take our time with it for sure, make sure he's ready to go next week," Cassidy said.
There's no telling what Cassidy's definition of serious is, but it says here that if a guy needs more than one day to be re-evaluated, he could miss some time.
Lining up
Cassidy said a lot of young guys will face the Devils, then Boston will cut down to almost its final group with just a couple spares to make up for anyone nursing an injury.
Here's one man's lineup prediction, based not just one camp performance and past performance, but also a glance into Cassidy's mind.
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Kuhlman
Heinen-Coyle-Ritchie
Kuraly-Lindholm-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Clifton
Backes, Kampfer, Nordstrom (hasn't taken contact yet so could start on IR) as extras.
