Kase, Kampfer Ruled Out For Rest Of Boston Bruins Playoffs

One round into the playoffs, the Boston Bruins have already ruled a couple of roster players out for the rest of the postseason.

Ondrej Kase won’t return this postseason for the Black and Gold after suffering an upper body injury in his first game back from a lengthy absence due to a concussion, and defenseman Steve Kampfer is also done for the Stanley Cup playoffs after undergoing hand surgery. While the news wasn’t good for either of those players, Kase and Kampfer also weren’t players that the Boston Bruins would be relying on unless their depth was severely tested anyway.

The 25-year-old Kase now has one assist in nine games for the Bruins over the last two seasons and Kampfer had two goals and five points in 20 games for the Bruins this season as the perfect reserve defenseman.

“Ondrej has shut it down as well and will not be part of availability for us going forward in the playoffs,” said Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. “[Kampfer] recently had arm surgery and he elected to have hand surgery. So, he’s in a recovery phase and not available for us.”

Sweeney didn’t address any rumors of Kampfer signing a KHL contract for next season, simply stating that he’s “still under contract” with the Boston Bruins at this point.

On the good news front, Jeremy Lauzon (upper body) and Jakub Zboril are expected to be available for a second round series after battling through injuries in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Kevan Miller (upper body) is also doing better after getting blasted with a flying Dmitry Orlov hit in Game 4 but is “at the very beginning of a recovery process” that could take some time for the rugged Boston Bruins defenseman.

“Our hope is that they’ll both be available for the next series. Again, we’ll probably have a better understanding [when practice resumes] on how they continue to progress and get on the ice. Until they’re in a practice with the main group, we won’t really know,” said Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney. “But hopefully we get a little extra time [waiting for a second round opponent] and they can move along in the healing process. Then obviously getting up to full speed [is when they could] become fully available for us.”

On another front, Sweeney also indicated the layoff between the first and second round should give adequate time for members of the Boston Bruins to also schedule their second COVID-19 vaccine shots without worry for any side effects impacting postseason performance.