Brad Marchand suffered an injury against the Colorado Avalanche, and Jim Montgomery provided an update in this edition of Boston Bruins News.
The Boston Bruins opened their early-season three-game road trip in Colorado on Wednesday night, defeating the struggling Avalanche 5-3. Boston improved to 3-2-0, but the Avs went to 0-4-0, which is astonishing. The Black and Gold appear to have avoided a catastrophic injury, which is where we will start this edition of Boston Bruins News.
Brad Marchand appears to have avoided a major injury
Bruins supporters held their breath when captain Brad Marchand collided with Mikko Rantanen in the second period and left the game. He missed the remainder of the period and a portion of the third, but returned to the bench and finished the game.
“Oh, Brad is fine,” said Boston coach Jim Montgomery. “Only a spasm.”
Marchand has three assists this season after undergoing numerous operations in the offseason, but losing him due to injury would be a blow to Montgomery’s lineup. There is no replacing him, and Marchand will have several more “maintenance days” between games this season.
Joonas Korpisalo picks up first win as a Bruin
It wasn’t always glamorous, but a win is a win, right? One of the three parts in the Linus Ullmark trade with the Ottawa Senators, Bruins supporters witnessed Sens fans’ anguish last season when Joonas Korpisalo was statistically one of the league’s worst goaltenders. He let up six goals in the season-opening 6-4 loss against the Florida Panthers.
After Jeremy Swayman played the following three games, Montgomery didn’t reveal his plans for the game against Colorado, but he did choose Korpisalo to make his second start, as expected. He made 20 saves and conceded three power play goals, but this could help him gain confidence in the future.
Former Bruins defenseman retires
Anton Strålman, a defenseman with the Bruins during their record-breaking 2022-23 season, may have gone unnoticed. He only appeared in eight games, finishing with no points and a plus/minus of -3 while averaging 15:22 per night.
Stralman apparently retired and is now coaching Skultorps IF, a Swedish women’s soccer team. Last season, he appeared in 48 Swedish Hockey League (SHL) games, scoring two goals and assisting on 14 others, totaling HV71.
NHL Veteran Sign PTO with Providence
Tyler Pitlick, a veteran NHL forward, was invited to the Providence Bruins’ training camp and signed a PTO to remain with the team on Thursday. He got one goal and three assists in 34 games for the New York Rangers last season, and it will be interesting to see what this transfer means. Maybe it’s nothing, or it could be anything later on.
