The Bruins have been playing shorthanded for a long time now, but they head into the Black Friday matchup against the New York Rangers seriously depleted.
Coach Marco Sturm told reporters that both David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha are unavailable because unspecified “day-to-day” maladies.
Because of that, Casey Mittelstadt, who has been out since October 30 with a knee injury, has been activated and, despite having not practiced with the team since that, is being pushed back into duty. Also Georgii Merkulov has been recalled.
“I gave them a day off yesterday and it was something that came up today and so we have to wait till tomorrow,” said Sturm.
Sturm believes his team can overcome the losses.
“It’s very easy because we’ve done it before. I just told the group ‘I’m not worried at all,’ because we’ve done it as a group before with a lot of guys out. As long as we play with our structure, especially without the puck, we’ll be good,” said Sturm.
Viktor Arvidsson and Charlie McAvoy also remain out while Matej Blumel, injured in the first period of the B’s 3-1 win on Long Island on Wednesday, was placed on long-term injured reserve. Michael Callahan was assigned to Providence.
Joonas Korpisalo will make the start against the Blueshirts.