For the first time since the two valuable skaters suffered from injuries, David Krejci and Johnny Boychuk participated in the Boston Bruins’ game day skate, according to James Murphy of ESPN Boston.
Krejci is fighting off a minor concussion he’s been dealing with since playing against the St. Louis Blues last Saturday. Boychuk broke his forearm during the team’s October 23 game against the New York Rangers.
Marco Sturm reportedly joined them during the morning skate, but gradually improving center Marc Savard did not participate.
I’m not certain if there is any clear return date for Krejci - concussions are still as mysterious as ever - but Murphy reports that Boychuk could return to game action as soon as next weekend. They obviously weren’t able to play in tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators, but there’s at least some reason for optimism regarding Boston’s injury riddled roster.
That doesn’t mean that the Bruins are assuming that either one will avoid setbacks along the way.Bruins coach Claude Julien was pleased with the progress of Boychuk and Krejci, but he and the Bruins won’t get ahead of themselves.
“Both are progressing well,” Julien said after the skate. “David started his exertion test yesterday, as we mentioned. He got on the bike and felt good enough to get on the ice and skate a little bit today. I guess that result we’ll get later on, and as the day progresses we’ll know whether he feels good enough and see tomorrow. So those are things that he’s going through, and so far everything is going in the right direction with him.
“Johnny is the same thing. He started skating with us today, getting some shots, so he’s progressing well. I guess these next few days will determine how close he is to starting to play again.”
We’ll keep you updated about their injury statuses, but if you ask Boychuk, he sounds like he’s getting much closer to being ready. Here’s some of his comments via ESPN.
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