Message sent or not via healthy scratches or not, Dave Bolland returns to the Florida Panthers mix on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, it’s maybe not under the most ideal circumstances, as part of the explanation for his return is Nick Bjugstad’s absence.
The Miami Herald’s George Richards reports that Bjugstad is out tonight against the St. Louis Blues with an upper-body injury that he suffered during a Monday practice.
#FlaPanthers without C Nick Bjugstad tonight v #stlBlues ... Hurt (upper body) in practice Monday, sent home to be evaluated...
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) December 1, 2015
In fact, as you can see in the tweet above, the young forward was sent home because of the injury.
This forces some shuffling, with Vincent Trocheck moving up to the second line while Bolland centers the third combo as usual.
With Bjugstad out looks like Trocheck to center #FlaPanthers second line, Bolland back on third
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) December 1, 2015
The Panthers are currently on a two-game winning streak and visit St. Louis as the second date in a five-game road trip.
This is also the early part of a span in which they play nine of 10 games on the road (counting Sunday’s away win), so a prolonged absence from Bjugstad could sting that much more.