Boston Bruins Center Krejci Knocked Out Of Devils Game

The Boston Bruins continue to weather the injury story with another banged-up body as 34-year-old center David Krejci was knocked out of Boston’s Thursday night tilt with a lower body injury suffered against the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden.

Krejci finished with 6:31 of ice time and played the entire first period but didn’t come out for the second as the B’s scrambled without their second line center for the final 40 minutes of a game the Bruins ultimately lost by a 3-2 score. Bruce Cassidy didn’t have much of an update about the Krejci injury postgame, or whether he’d be on the Friday flight to California for this weekend’s Lake Tahoe outdoor game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Lower body injury. I don’t have anything more than that,” said Cassidy. “Obviously we’re heading out tomorrow, so I don’t know what his situation is going to be there. I’ll have to check in with the medical staff tonight or early morning for an update.”

There didn’t appear to be a clear event where the injury took place, though there was a pile-up of bodies in the face-off circle after one particularly physical Krejci defensive zone draw in the first period.

Charlie Coyle stepped into Krejci’s spot in the second period centering David Pastrnak and Nick Ritchie, but Krejci’s absence will undoubtedly get the Boston Bruins coaching staff shuffling the lines for the remainder of the game.

Krejci has played in all 15 games this season but was off to a slow offensive start with zero goals and 10 assists while averaging 17:48 of ice time per game. If Krejci is missing for any period of time, the Bruins will now be missing their second line center and second line right wing with both Krejci and Ondrej Kase out of action with injuries. The Bruins are also missing Jakub Zboril (upper body) and Matt Grzelcyk (lower body) to injuries at this point as the list of players not making the trip from Boston to Lake Tahoe this weekend is beginning to grow.