BOSTON — The Bruins’ defensive unit was pressed into a troublesome state of affairs throughout Recreation 2 in opposition to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday evening.
Boston misplaced a defenseman with 6:40 left within the second interval when Andrew Peeke exited the sport with an damage and didn’t return. He appeared to undergo the damage when a shot from Tyler Bertuzzi went off his hand.
And Peeke’s standing was nonetheless up within the air following Boston’s 3-2 loss at TD Backyard.
“I don’t have an replace on (Peeke) but,” Jim Montgomery mentioned. “Ought to have one (Tuesday).”
Story continues under commercial
The Bruins did their greatest to make up for Peeke’s absence as they leaned on 5 defensemen in entrance of goalie Linus Ullmark for the ultimate 20-plus minutes of the competition. Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm logged extra time on ice than every other skaters from each groups.
Montgomery additionally needed to put Kevin Shattenkirk in an unfamiliar place late within the second interval when Matt Grzelcyk was whistled for interference. Shattenkirk crammed in on the penalty kill for Peeke, however the Maple Leafs netted the equalizer off the stick of John Tavares on the facility play with 1:34 left within the body.
“I assumed our 5 (defenseman) gave us every little thing they might,” Montgomery mentioned. “I assumed our forwards wanted to take over the sport within the third interval.”
Montgomery may have choices to fill Peeke’s spot if he’s out an prolonged time period. Montgomery might flip to Parker Wotherspoon, who averaged 17:43 in time on ice throughout 41 video games with the Bruins this season. He additionally registered eight assists.
Story continues under commercial
It feels unlikely that Montgomery would go for Mason Lohrei because of the 23-year-old’s inexperience. However Lohrei might present an offensive spark from the backend as he tallied 4 objectives and 9 assists in 41 regular-season video games.
Then there’s Derek Forbort. Forbort was positioned on long-term injured reserve in early March and lately underwent two surgical procedures. However he surprisingly labored his means again faster than anticipated and was on the ice for Boston’s morning skate Tuesday.
Forbort plans to journey to Toronto with the collection switching there for Recreation 3 and the veteran defenseman would possibly simply be within the lineup now with Peeke injured.
