Bruins notebook: Brad Marchand, Anton Blidh out for at least a game

The Bruins, it appears, have reached a suck-it-up moment in their season.

Coach Bruce Cassidy said on Friday that both Brad Marchand and Anton Blidh will be out for Saturday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets at least and, after that, the team will have a better idea of how long they’re going to be out.

In the case of Marchand, it’s hard not to think he’ll miss more than a game. A week ago, when he had his nose broken on in a game in Washington, he missed one shift to get the bleeding to stop and never left the bench. But in Thursday’s 4-3 win over Washington at the Garden, after taking hit from behind into the boards from the Caps’ Garnet Hathaway, he was experiencing obvious pain in the right shoulder area, so much so that he could not even lift his arms in celebration when David Pastrnak scored a power-play goal.

Losing a player like Marchand is a tough loss, for however long it is. But elite teams manage to handle these kind of losses. Tampa was without Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point for a good chunk of the season, and yet the two-time Stanley Cup champions are still hovering at the top of the league standings.

The Bruins have proven over the last month that they are more than capable of being a playoff team. But are they elite? If they can continue winning without Marchand, then you might just have your answer. Gutting out the win over Washington was a good first step.

“When you lose a player like Brad Marchand, who’s probably the best winger in the game right now, left winger especially, what he brings to our team especially as a player but also leadership-wise, every guy wants to step up because of the way he steps up for us every night,” said Nick Foligno. “That’s what we saw (Thursday) night in the group. You hear a guy like him goes down with an injury, and he’ll fight through anything to play, other guys know it’s on them. It’s not like you say ‘All right, I’m going to be the guy.’ It’s that every guy says ‘I’m going to do a little bit more and do what needs to be done.’ And (Thursday) night it was Jake (DeBrusk) for us. He steps into that role and does a great in getting two big goals for us, setting up the game-winner.

“It’s what this team does well. It seems we’ve always had that next-man-up mentality. We’re going to need that to replace a guy like Brad Marchand. I’m sure it won’t be too long with the way his mindset is.”

DeBrusk will get a chance to build on that performance Cassidy said that Taylor Hall could take some of Marchand’s power-play time on the half-wall, and Foligno will no doubt pick up some penalty killing slack. But DeBrusk will remain on the Patrice Bergeron–Craig Smith line. He earned that, at least.

“He did a good job up there,” said Cassidy. “When (Marchand) goes out, Jake certainly has elements to bring offense. That line is matched up predominantly against (Alex) Ovechkin and (Evgeni) Kuznetsov (Thursday) night, in a perfect world, so Jake did a good job of replacing the offensive part. Had a couple plays, made a nice play on the power play. …He did a good job of finding the open man on the entry. And the ask for him is you’re going to play against the other team’s top pair, or at least top four. You’re playing against good players, so make sure your defensive habits aren’t lost and contribute offensively. He’ll get his opportunity and hopefully it works out well for him.”

Unless DeBrusk has had a change of heart, and we’ve not heard of one, his trade request still stands. But he’s played well lately, even if he wasn’t really rewarded with points until Thursday.

“He’s shown he’s committed here, as long as he’s here,” said Foligno. “It’s great to see. I think it’s a great opportunity for him to play in those minutes. It’s going to be by committee, like it always is here. But when you get put in that role, you’re getting the trust of the coaches and teammates to do that job. I’m thrilled for him. I thought he played a great game.”

Times they are a-changin’

As is often the case, angry Bruins’ Twitter lit up when Marchand got hurt and no Capitals were made to bleed for it.

Foligno is as old school as they come, but he acknowledged things are different now, though he did flash his fangs a bit when asked about it.

“It’s not like the old days when you had five tough guys on the team and that’s the way it was answered. I think it’s a little different now. Sometimes you don’t want to put your team behind…the win is always more important,” said Foligno. “That’s not to say if somebody is wronged in a way and we feel that needs to be addressed…we have the guys in the room that will address it. As far as Marchy’s hit, I honestly didn’t see it until after the game. Now I view it a little differently. I actually thought he was tripped. I didn’t realize that (Garnet) Hathaway targeted him a little bit. That’ll be addressed down the road. There are other games. The biggest thing is we get that win and Marchy knows if it needs to be addressed, it will be. Same for (Blidh). We’re going to stand up for one another and we play a team tough game. Sometimes, the fights are great and I think the fans appreciate it, but sometimes it can hurt the team and the win is more important. There’s other ways of getting retribution down the road.”

Foligno escapes serious injury

Foligno felt he dodged a bullet when he escaped serious injury in his awkward fall in Tampa on Jan. 8.

“As unlucky as this year’s been with some of the injuries, it felt like it could have been a lot worse. In a weird way, I felt lucky it was only a couple of weeks and I’m back out here with the guys,” said Foligno. …

Steven Fogarty was recalled from Providence to replenish the troops. Fogarty is a 6-4 right-shot centerman who has 23 points in 26 games in Providence. Either he or Curtis Lazar could play the middle in the fourth line with Tomas Nosek moving over to left wing. With Oskar Steen going back in, Foligno could move back to Charlie Coyle’s left wing.