BOSTON -- Daniel Paille cant seem to catch a break.
The fourth line left winger had just shed the cage on his helmet in Winnipeg on Tuesday night after his nose was crushed by a slap shot last month against the New York Islanders.
But a healthy, unobstructed period of playing time for Paille appeared to come to an end after he suffer a head injury from a Krystofer Barch hit in Thursday nights 2-0 loss to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.
Claude Julien intimated that Paille had suffered a head injury that was being treated by doctors, but wouldnt immediately give a diagnosis of the forwards injury.
Its not a concrete update. He got dinged pretty good there, said Julien. Our doctors felt that it was safer to not let him return and examine him a bit further. He wasnt well enough to come back.
I think it was just how he ended up going down, I guess. It looked like there was almost a helmet-to-helmet collision there in slow-motion.
The hit came on Barchs first shift of the game when he took a run at Paille in the first period, and video replays appeared that the fourth line forward suffered a head-to-head collision.
Paille immediately went down and then attempted to stand up with wobbly legs, but in the immediate aftermath both Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell made a B-line for Barch. Thornton memorably dropped Barch with one punch to the face during last years BruinsStars fight-filled game in Boston, and have fought each other multiple times.
So it was Thornton that again dropped gloves with Barch and won the decision over the Florida tough guy in his first game after moving to the Panthers from the Starts organization this week.
I didn't see it. I really didn't, I still haven't seen it. I just saw Paille laying there and obviously the type of team we are, I'm going to err on the side of sticking up for him, said Thornton. I mean, if it was a clean hit, then it was a clean hit. But if it wasn't, I'm glad we got in there. Guys like me and Gregory Campbell are going to step up if one of our teammates is laying there.
If Paille is lost with a concussion or other head injury, its expected that Jordan Caron will jump into the lineup with the Bs fourth line after skating in their 2-1 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday.