It was the first question Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was asked when he got off the ice following a morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena, and rightfully so: with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line against the Lightning tonight at TD Garden, who's in and who's out for the healthy-again, injured-again Bruins?
David Backes, absent from the last five games with a deep leg laceration suffered on a Yanni Gourde skateblade? Thanks to some new, bacteria-free hockey pants, he's expected back in action.
"It's feeling better. We're not worried about [an] infection anymore. I feel like we've done a good job of giving [the cut] time to close up," Backes, who admitted that the cut that required nearly 20 stitches could have been a lot worse, said Thursday. "Felt functional today, so [I will] get my mind right, and get ready for a hockey game tonight."
Zdeno Chara and Jake DeBrusk, both of whom left a Mar. 13 win over the Hurricanes with upper-body ailments, remain out. Same for No. 2 defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who said he missed his teammates a whole bunch while taking part in lonely skates during their recent road trips, and his recovering knee. Rick Nash, though working out at the facility on Thursday, still isn't skating and will miss his sixth straight game due to an upper-body injury. Sean Kuraly, apparently injured in Tuesday's shootout loss to the Jets, will join him on the shelf with an upper-body injury. And Matt Grzelcyk, absolutely smashed into the MTS Centre glass on a vicious boarding from the Jets' Josh Morrissey on Tuesday, took part in the morning skate and will be a game-time decision.
In the case of Chara, DeBrusk, and McAvoy, Cassidy remains optimistic that they'll get some, if not all, back by this weekend's back-to-back with the Panthers and Flyers. Chara essentially said he's not returning until he's 100 percent because there's no sense in rushing back before the postseason and playing at anything but his best just for the hell of it, and DeBrusk feels that additional progress in Friday's skate will be the true test in regards to a potential weekend return. McAvoy is respecting the process, and simply being patience with a recovery time that's still on track for a return before the start of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. All are seemingly positive signs when it comes to the 'severity' of their injuries.
Nash remains day-to-day, and Kuraly seems like a day-to-day issue as well. And if Grzelcyk is unable to go, Tommy Cross will draw into his first regular-season NHL game since Oct. 21, 2015.
(Now, please excuse me while I take a deep breath after that update.)
Of course, this is nothing that the Bruins haven't already dealt with this season, with 260 man-games lost to injury on the year.
But it's something that's highly impressive given the B's place in the Eastern Conference standings (they enter play just a single point behind the Bolts for the top spot), and in a March that's come with the Bruins grabbing 21 of a possible 28 points by way of a 9-2-3 record.
"They're playing awesome. It really is a special group, and you see that even more when you're missing a bunch of guys," McAvoy said. "We're missing some really special players up front, and then Z, who runs the ship, he's out, and we just keep carrying on. We've had a couple of games on the trip where we've gone down, and we find a way to get back.
"We're a never-say-die kind of group."
And fortunately for the Bruins, the belief is that such a group, or at least those currently skating, will be together and ready to go come the first round of the postseason.
"The guys that are skating should be ready," Cassidy noted. "Until [Rick Nash]'s on the ice, we'll see. But the rest of the guys, I anticipate [playing in the playoffs], and we'll leave it at that."
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