Bruins Will Miss Krug's Presence

TAMPA - The Bruins, down 3-1 in their second-round tilt with the Lightning, received some more bad news on Saturday afternoon. Upon their arrival in Tampa, the team announced that defenseman Torey Krug will not play in the remainder of the series after leaving Friday night's loss with a lower-body injury, the result of an awkward slam into the end boards.

"He's out," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "He's still getting evaluated, but doesn't look good that it will be short term."
Release: Dr. Asnis' Update on Krug
With Krug sidelined, Cassidy will turn to Nick Holden, the left-shot blue liner acquired from the New York Rangers just prior to the trade deadline. Holden has played just one game this postseason, notching an assist and a plus-1 rating in 12:25 of ice time in the Bruins' 4-2 loss to Toronto in Game 3 of the first round.
"Nick will go in," said Cassidy. "He did a good job for us when he was in. We're going to miss Torey, obviously, he's a good player for us. He really adds to our offensive side of things. But Nick's done a good job, so he'll go in."

It will not, however, be an easy task to replace Krug's production. The blue liner has quarterbacked the B's first-power play unit, helping Boston to the league's best man advantage (36.7%) during the postseason with seven power-play points.
Krug is also the league's leading scorer among defensemen with 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in 11 playoff games.
"It's tough, tough luck, especially a guy like that who's been a really good season and good playoffs," said David Krejci. "Can't replace a guy like that. But at the same time, we've been missing lots of key players throughout the season and guys have been stepping up.
"It's up to the D's to step up, but also the forwards to help out defensively on breakouts and get open, just play a little better in every single position."

One at a Time

As Krejci put it during his meeting with the media, the Bruins can't win three games on Sunday afternoon. Their sole focus at the moment is getting the series back to Boston for Game 6.
"Obviously it's not the position we would love to be in," Krejci said of facing a 3-1 series hole. "But it's a great challenge, a great opportunity for our team. We obviously believe we have a good team. We have to go out there tomorrow and worry about the next shift. We're not gonna win three games tomorrow. But we can win the next shift and move on."
David Pastrnak echoed his fellow Czech native's sentiments.
"You can't think big, you have to take it game to game," he said. "We have to go all in…we need to dig deep and take it game by game. Leave it all out there.
"It's not over. They're up 3-1, they have an advantage on us. But we're gonna prepare just like we did every other game in the playoffs and leave it all out there.
"We came here to win and get back to Boston."

Tongue Lashing

The NHL released a statement on Saturday afternoon revealing that it had spoken with Brad Marchand and the Bruins about the winger's licking incident with Tampa forward Ryan Callahan during Game 4. Should Marchand engage in such behavior in the future, he'll be subject to supplemental discipline.
"I saw the statement today," said Cassidy. "Obviously Brad has to stop licking. To me that's the end of the story. If that's what the league says and they're threatening discipline then we need him on the ice and in the lineup, so to me it's that simple.
Below is the league's statement, released via the NHL Public Relations Twitter account:
"NHL's Colin Campbell spoke with Boston's Brad Marchand and GM Don Sweeney today. The League put the player on notice that his actions last night are unacceptable and similar behavior in the future will be dealt with by way of supplemental discipline."

Forward Thinking

Cassidy said he has not yet made any decisions on what his forward group will look like for Game 5. The B's bench boss subbed in Ryan Donato and Brian Gionta for Riley Nash and Danton Heinen on the third line in Game 4.
"We're gonna have a conversation about that," said Cassidy. "We're healthy there. We'll have to look at how it played out last night, the combinations we used, the players that didn't play. Will they be better? Is it our best lineup with them back in? I don't have a good answer for you today. We'll sort through that."

Getting Even

The Bruins have not scored a 5-on-5 goal since Game 2, a trend that can't continue should they hope to extend the series. Of Boston's four goals over the last two games, three have come on the power play and one on the penalty kill.
"The first thing is you've got to give credit to Tampa Bay," said Cassidy. "They're working hard to keep the puck out of their net, they're making it hard for our guys to get inside. They've got big D. I think last night we hit two posts in the second period 5-on-5, so there is something to be said for their goaltending and a little bit of puck luck.
"Other than that, It think it has to do with them playing a hard-brand of defensive hockey…we've got to find a way with our skill to finish the job. I think we've been close. But obviously that's not gonna cut it. That's part of it. We've been a good 5-on-5 team all year."