Kase Knocked Out Of Boston Bruins OT Loss In Jersey

The Boston Bruins are battling through forward injury issues to begin this young regular season and that continued in losing Ondrej Kase to an upper body injury in Saturday afternoon’s 2-1 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center.

Kase was leveled by a high hit from Miles Wood in the corner during the second period with what appeared to be either a cross-check or a closed fist from the Devils forward. The Bruins right winger tried to finish out the second period shift but needed to be helped to the dressing room after struggling to the Boston Bruins bench. Kase never returned to the game after just 4:40 of ice time, and the Bruins didn’t have much more of a substantial update beyond seeing how he feels on Sunday.

“Upper body. Unable to return. We’ll probably have a better update for you on [Sunday],” said Bruce Cassidy. “I think he bumped into Wood in the corner, tried to finish his shift and then that was it for him.”

The assumption, of course, would be that it might be a concussion based on the high contact in the collision. Clearly, it’s a bit more of a concern with a player like Kase that’s had a history of concussion issues and wasn’t able to play when he initially arrived in Boston last season due to a concussion suffered with the Anaheim Ducks.

With Kase out of the lineup, Cassidy shuffled around a Bruins forward group that clearly aren’t hitting on all cylinders right now. The adjustments led to Craig Smith sliding into Kase’s spot at points in the second half of the game, and then David Krejci double shifting for each of the top two forward lines in the third period when the B’s were scraping for a goal.

If the Bruins are missing Kase for any period of time, that’s going to severely diminish their right wing depth while already missing David Pastrnak (offseason hip surgery) for the first few weeks of the season, and with Craig Smith fighting through a nagging lower body issue.