Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand was not on the ice at practice on Saturday morning after leaving Game 3 in the second intermission and not returning.
Early in the first period of his team’s 6-2 loss on Friday night, Marchand braced for a collision with Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett and got the worst of it. Marchand appeared to take the butt-end of Bennett’s stick as the Panthers forward followed through on the hit. He fell to the ice hard and, thankfully, in front of the Bruins’ bench because he was shaken up and needed help to get to the bench.
Brad Marchand missed a couple of shifts but returned and tried to battle through whatever the injury was that he suffered in the collision with Bennett. After playing 10:51, 15 shifts, and registering four hits but no points, Marchand was done after two periods of play.
There was some good news from practice, though, on Saturday as winger Danton Heinen took regular line shifts on the left wing of the third line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. Heinen has been out of the Boston Bruins lineup since leaving Game 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs early with what is still termed an ‘undisclosed injury.’
With Marchand out of the lineup and Heinen back at practice on Saturday, that meant that the forward lines were thrown into a blender again. Here’s what they looked like:
Forwards
Jake DeBrusk – Morgan Geekie – David Pastrnak
James van Riemsdyk – Pavel Zacha – Justin Brazeau
Danton Heinen – Charlie Coyle – Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko – John Beecher – Pat Maroon
Defensemen
Mason Lohrei – Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort – Andrew Peeke
Goalies
Jeremy Swayman
Linus Ullmark
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