"Backes is out. He'll be evaluated later today, so we'll have an update," Head Coach Bruce Cassidy said after pregame skate. "And Bergy is also out. He'll be day-to-day, lower body."
Cassidy elaborated on Backes' situation.
"He's going to see the doctor this afternoon, so I don't want to expand on it, because I don't know all the details," said Cassidy. "But there should be some sort of announcement later after he sees the medical staff."
After Thursday's game, the Bruins get three days off of game action, before hosting the the Colorado Avalanche on Monday afternoon at TD Garden. That will give the injured players time to recover.
"It's nice to not have to go right back at it [Friday] or Saturday," said Cassidy. "It allows guys like Torey - Torey definitely has a doctors visit. There could be news there, we don't know. But he has his three week check-up."
"And with Bergy, day to day. With Backs, we're just not sure right now. That could be a blessing as well."
With Bergeron and Backes out up front, the lines will be juggled heading into the opener.
"That throws a few lines into a blender," said Cassidy. "We're going to see some tinkering tonight. I don't want to get specific with each line, since a lot of them have been broken up."
"Right now, we're planning on moving [Ryan] Spooner up into Bergy's spot, and then we'll go from there. So there may be a line of [Matt] Beleskey, [Sean] Kuraly, [Frank] Vatrano, I threw them together yesterday in practice and they had lots of energy. Obviously, they're going to have to play a North-South game."
"If it's [Riley] Nash, [Tim] Schaller, [Noel] Acciari, they've been together, we see them as a shutdown line with some physicality and hopefully a little bit of finish," said Cassidy. "And whatever the lines end up, listen, we've preached the same thing. We want to play with pace and we want to be hard at the puck, on the puck, around the puck, and that's what we're going to ask of all twelve forwards in the lineup."
