TORONTO — Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron was ruled out of Thursday’s playoff game against the Toronto Maple Leafs with an upper-body injury.
The team made the surprise announcement minutes before warmup of Game 4, while adding he’s day-to-day.
The 32-year-old showed no signs that he would be out of the lineup as he spoke with media earlier in the day in the Bruins’ locker room.
"We’re approaching this game like we have from the start of the series," Bergeron said hours before puck drop. "Give it everything we have tonight."
Bergeron has five assists through the first three games of Boston’s first-round matchup against the Leafs, which the Bruins lead 2-1.
Centre Riley Nash replaced Bergeron on the top line alongside wingers Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.
At Wednesday’s off-day practice Nash took some line rushes alongside Marchand and Pastrnak, however head coach Bruce Cassidy said Thursday when asked that it wasn’t for any specific reason.
"We’re just managing (Bergeron) a little bit that’s all," said Cassidy. "Riley’s played there during the year. We’re just playing around with things… I guess that’s all there is to it."
Bergeron was also nominated as a finalist for the Selke Trophy on Thursday for the seventh season in a row. It’s given annually to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.
He’s the only active player to win the award four times, taking home the trophy in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Bergeron missed 13 games from Feb. 27 through March 23 with a lower-body injury. He finished the regular season with 30 goals and 33 assists for 63 points with 26 penalty minutes and a plus-21 rating in 64 games.
For the Maple Leafs, Thursday night’s Game 4 of the quarter-final series with Boston (7 p.m., CBC) marks a must-win situation.
It also marks an opportunity for the Leafs to continue clamping down on what was a porous penalty kill through the first two games in Boston.
The Bruins didn’t score on their lone power-play opportunity in Game 3 — a factor in the Leafs’ 4-2 win. In two road games before that, though, Boston clicked at 50 per cent — scoring five times on 10 power-play chances.
“I think we are trying to get our group back to where it was,” said Zach Hyman, referring to the Leafs’ penalty kill unit which ranked in the top 10 during the regular season.
“Not giving up a power-play goal in Game 3 was huge for us. They have a really good power play, and we have a lot of respect for them. But we can be better at the same time. We have a lot to prove, for sure.”
2018 NHL Playoffs Round 1 Toronto vs Boston: Game # 4
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Air Canada Centre
Broadcast/Streaming: CBC / NBCSN
Opponent SBNation Site: Stanley Cup of Chowder
After getting pasted for a couple of games in Massachusetts, the Leafs came out on home ice and looked like themselves. It was sloppy at times and they needed some heroics from Freddie Andersen, but the Leafs brought the offensive fire they need to win games. More of that, please.
Patrick Marleau led the charge with a pair of goals. In his honour: Bear vs. (Former) Shark.
Forward Lines
Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Tomas Plekanec - Mitch Marner
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson - Dominic Moore - Kasperi Kapanen
Defence Pairings
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Roman Polak
Goaltenders
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Nazem Kadri is serving the final game of his suspension for boarding the Bruins’ Tommy Wingels in Game One, while Leo Komarov looks to be still recovering. So the Leafs are back to the roster that won Game Three. Tomas Plekanec lost the shots battle to the Bergeron line (everyone does) but played as effectively as we could have hoped, while Dom Moore sure looked like a man who does not want to leave the lineup again.
Jake Gardiner had an extremely fine game on Monday night, and getting more of Playoff Jake would go a long way toward tying up this series. Freddie let in a couple of muffin goals early and then went into Kill Mode for the third period, making one of the greatest saves I’ve ever seen.
Boston Bruins
Forward Lines
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash
Danton Heinen - Noel Acciari - David Backes
Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Tommy Wingels
Defence Pairings
Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Matt Grzelcyk - Adam McQuaid
Goaltenders
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
I said a bunch of stuff, but forget it, because we have one hell of a late-breaking announcement:
UPDATE: Patrice Bergeron will not play in tonight’s game (Upper body, day-to-day). — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 19, 2018
Needless to say, the Bruins missing their best player is a situation the Leafs had damn well better be prepared to take advantage of. We don’t currently have the lines as they will appear sans Bergeron as this is very late-breaking news, but Riley Nash was apparently taking shifts between Marchand and Pastrnak yesterday, so he may be the next man up.
Follow-up: here’s the warmup:
Per warmups:
Marchand-Riley Nash-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Rick Nash
Heinen-Kuraly-Backes
Schaller-Acciari-Wingels
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Miller
Grzelcyk-McQuaid
Rask — Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) April 19, 2018
GO LEAFS GO
The Maple Leafs are looking to keep the momentum going and tie up their series against the Bruins on Thursday night in Toronto following a huge bounce-back win on home ice in Game 3. Can the Leafs shut down Boston's top line for a second straight game? They'll have to hope so if they want to make it a brand new series.
The last time these two teams met in the postseason, it resulted in Boston delivering a soul-crushing defeat to Toronto after three late goals to force overtime in Game 7.
That was back in 2013, and while anticipation is high for this rematch between two Original Six rivals, the Bruins and Maple Leafs are very different teams than the last time they faced off under the pressure of the postseason. Both teams have been reinvigorated by a promising crop of young talent. Toronto has Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and others. The Bruins have David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Ryan Donato, and others.
That's not to say that there aren't returning faces, as there are a number of veterans on both sides who are quite familiar with the guys in the opposing sweaters. It's just that both teams have gone through their share of organizational struggles since that last meeting, and now they're in a place where it feels like they've turned a corner. This could be the first of several matchups between the two in the coming years.
Here's everything you need to know entering Game 3.
How to watch
TV: NBCSN, CNBC, USA, SN360, Golf Channel, NBCSCA, TVAS, PRIME
Stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
Follow: CBS Sports App
(All times ET)
Game 1, Thursday, April 12: Bruins 5, Maple Leafs 1
Game 2, Saturday, April 14: Bruins 7, Maple Leafs 3
Game 3, Monday, April 16: Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 2
Game 4, Thursday, April 19: Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. -- CBC, TVA Sports, NBCSN
*Game 5, Saturday, April 21: *Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, TBD
*Game 6, Monday, April 23: *Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, TBD
*Game 7, Wednesday, April 25: *Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins, TBD
NHL Playoffs odds
Here's a look at each team's projected odds to advance via SportsLine, not to mention their odds to win not only their conference, but also the Stanley Cup.
Matchup breakdown
OFFENSE
The Bruins and Leafs both have quite a bit of talent and depth on the front end, and both of their offenses are led by a very strong top line. Boston has an outstanding two-way trio with David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand -- all of whom scored 30 or more goals this year -- while the Leafs' top unit of Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and William Nylander can give defenses fits with their skill and speed. The Leafs to spread their production a little bit more and will enter the series a bit healthier than the Bruins, so they could have a slight edge on the front end. It's not much though.
Edge: Maple Leafs
DEFENSE
The Bruins' back end has dealt with plenty of injuries, and they've lost a top-four defenseman in Brandon Carlo for the year thanks to a fractured ankle at the tail end of the season. Their top pairing of Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy has been very good for a majority of the year (they were a little rusty upon reuniting late in the season following injury) and, if healthy, should lead the charge for a defensive unit that has been solid and responsible, giving up the third-fewest goals in the league this season. Meanwhile, Toronto's defense isn't great. The Leafs don't have a single dominant shutdown guy and their right side is pretty questionable. Ron Hainsey is playing top pairing minutes, and he's got Nikita Zaitsev and Roman Polak (who needed surgery to repair a brutal leg injury suffered this time last year) behind him.
Edge: Bruins
GOALTENDING
Boston's Tuukka Rask and Toronto's Frederik Andersen are both highly skilled goalies capable of taking over games and stealing wins for the team in front of them. They're also two goaltenders that can be plagued by inconsistency. Both have looked like Vezina-caliber goaltenders during stretches this year, but haven't managed to sustain that quality of play long enough to put them in truly elite territory. If they're both at their best, there's not much of a discernible gap between the two, though Rask's career playoff numbers have been more impressive.
Edge: Push
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Bruins and Leafs both have excellent power-play units that leave little room for error. The Leafs rank slightly better on the man-advantage with a 24.9 percent conversion rate -- good enough for second in the NHL this season. The Bruins aren't far behind, as their 23.6 percent rate ranks them fourth in the league. However, there's more of a gap on the penalty kill, as the Bruins rank third among all teams with a 83.7 percent kill rate and have nine shorthanded goals on the year. The Leafs are 11th with an 81.4 percent kill and just four shorties.
Edge: Bruins
Blackburn: I'm expecting a tight back-and-forth series here, but I expect the Bruins to hold a defensive advantage and have more opportunities in the series. Their top six should be able to take advantage of Toronto's deficiencies on defense. Bruins in 6.
Benjamin: There's a temptation to project Auston Matthews advancing to the second round this year, especially since Toronto is no joke offensively, but neither is Tuukka Rask in the net. And with Boston healthier than it's been for a while, this one should allow the Bruins to show what they're made of early on. Bruins in 7.
Skiver: I'd give Boston the edge in net for this series, which puts them over the top. Tuukka is too good to go out in the first round, despite strong offensive firepower from Toronto. Bruins in 7.
