TORONTOBrad Marchand didnt finish the game after taking a tumble into the boards in the second period of Saturday nights win, but Claude Julien said he was taken out largely for precautionary purposes.
The play in question was in the middle of the second period as the Bs agitator crashed the net down with the left wing with Toronto defenseman Mike Komisarek riding on his back. Marchand tripped over a piece of goaltender James Reimers equipment and went crashing into the end boards with his shoulder, neck and back taking the brunt of the collision.
The play continued and finally stopped on a Tyler Seguin goal that was waved off as incidental contact goaltender interference based on the original play with Marchand. But the left wing skated over to the bench hunched over and in obvious pain. He skated a shift or two more and then was replaced by Gregory Campbell on the line with Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin. Marchand never came out with the team for the third period and its too early for Julien to really have any good idea whether the winger will be able to suit up against Montreal at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night.
It wasnt to the point where he couldnt have played in a pinch and he wanted to stay in, but Im going back to what Ive said from the beginning, said Julien. It was a precautionary move on our part where we said rather than make it worse, lets pull him back.
We dont want to lose players for the long term to injury by pushing players through minor ones. We hope that after he gets reevaluated and things settle down that hell be better quickly. We dont want to lose players long term so sometimes were going to be over-cautious.
Expect the Nose Face Killah to be announced as day-to-day with an upper body injury in the parlance of our hockey times once the Bruins regroup back at their home base on Sunday.