There was plenty to like in the Bruins’ 3-2 overtime win over the Blue Jackets Monday night, most notably Jake DeBrusk extending his goal streak to five games with two more tallies, including the winner.
There were two significant developments to not like, though. David Pastrnak and Trent Frederic both left the game due to injury and did not return. There was no update on either after the game.
It’s a reminder that with 13 games left in the regular season and the Bruins locked into a playoff spot, the most important thing between now and the start of the postseason in four weeks is health. Wins and losses matter. Home ice and seeding matter. Finding the right line combinations and defense pairings matters. But health tops the list by a sizable margin.
Pastrnak is the bigger name here, so let’s start with him. He left the game a little over four minutes into the third period when he got tangled up with Columbus' Vladislav Gavrikov on a faceoff and went down awkwardly.
The Bruins’ leading scorer has been nursing some sort of core injury for a couple weeks, since he had another awkward fall after stepping on the puck in Winnipeg on March 18. Pastrnak has been able to play through that issue, and it clearly wasn’t affecting his production, as he entered Monday with 10 points in the previous four games.
It was hard to tell if Monday’s injury was related or not. It looked like Pastrnak may have been limping as he left the ice this time, so it’s possible this was something more lower-body and unrelated. Whether he re-aggravated the existing injury or suffered a new one, seeing Pastrnak not return to the game obviously isn’t great.
The Bruins can afford to let Pastrnak rest up and heal for a few games if that’s what he needs. In fact, that would be the wise thing to do if it helps ensure Pastrnak is as close to 100% as possible come Game 1, Round 1. Needless to say, they cannot afford for this to be anything longer-term or to have it linger into the playoffs and force Pastrnak to play at much less than 100%.
Frederic’s injury was a little easier to figure out. Midway through the second period, he took a hard, clean hit from Jake Christiansen. Frederic slowly made his way across the ice to the bench and was visibly upset as he went down the tunnel. At the start of the third period, the Bruins announced that Frederic would not return due to an upper-body injury.
While we don’t know for sure, it certainly had the looks of another concussion for Frederic. Given that he has already suffered one confirmed concussion this season and another suspected one, a third in five months would obviously be pretty concerning.
The first came on Nov. 9 on a clean open-ice hit from then-Senator, now-Bruin Josh Brown. Frederic missed nearly three weeks and confirmed upon his return that it was a concussion. He said it was the second one he had ever suffered, as he also had one in college. The likely second one this season came on Jan. 10 in a hard collision with Alex Ovechkin. Frederic missed a full month after that one.
While Frederic isn’t the star that Pastrnak is, he has been playing his best hockey as a pro over the last month and has really settled in nicely as the third-line left wing next to Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith. The Bruins would hate to have to break up that line for any prolonged period of time given the way those three have been rolling.
Bruce Cassidy wanted to continue to work depth forwards like Anton Blidh, Marc McLaughlin and Jack Studnicka into the lineup down the stretch. With the Bruins playing again Tuesday night, it wouldn’t be surprising to see two of them go in for Pastrnak and Frederic, even if there are encouraging updates on those two. (Update: Pastrnak and Frederic will in fact miss Tuesday's game.)
The Bruins had a pretty settled top three lines for weeks. Monday offered a painful reminder of how quickly things can change. Now they’ll have to hope Pastrnak and Frederic aren’t out long.
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