Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, who last week placed center Patrice Bergeron on the long-term injured reserve list, yesterday told an all-sports radio station in Toronto the 22-year-old pivot could be finished for the season.
"He is suffering from a serious concussion," Chiarelli told Don Landry and Gord Stellick, cohosts of Fan590's "The Morning Show."
"And he could be out for the whole year."
Bergeron, who sustained a Grade 3 concussion Oct. 27 when he was driven into the boards by the Flyers' Randy Jones, has been available to the media only once, for some 10 minutes, since the incident. Otherwise, according to club employees, he remains at his Boston condo, and receives treatment for his head and neck injuries with the team's medical personnel at the Garden or at the club's facility in Wilmington.
"What I said was, I'm operating under the assumption that he could be out for the year," Chiarelli said between the first and second periods of last night's game against the Maple Leafs at the Garden. "That's the nature of concussions.
"Who knows, he could be back in a month."
Chiarelli said he spoke with Bergeron yesterday, and the center told him it was "a good day," compared with days earlier this week when he felt tired.
"He had some color in his face," said Chiarelli. "And he's got a little better movement in his neck - not as sore."
Meanwhile, now that Bergeron's salary cap hit of $4.75 million has been placed in abeyance, the Bruins are able to use that money to look for roster help. That sounds encouraging, but the pool of available players at this time of the season is quite shallow. The best unrestricted free agents were scooped, as they always are, in the days immediately following the start of the unrestricted free agent period July 1.
Desperate to pump up the goal volume, the Bruins were back to work with pretty much the same configuration of forwards that had produced 11 goals in the last six games.
Short of making a trade (difficult these days), or dropping in a hot hand from the minors (not likely), the Bruins have to find a way to wring out new offensive vigor from what has been a dull bunch. As of yesterday, they ranked dead last in the league in goals with 36.
"The one thing we have tried to stabilize is our goals against," said coach Claude Julien. "This team last year was giving up way too many goals. That pushes a team out of the game. We had to really concentrate on that this year. Sometimes when you focus on that part of hockey, the other part of the game suffers."
Fernandez out; Rask up
Tuukka Rask was back on the Boston bench, serving his fourth game for the varsity as backup to Tim Thomas. Julien said Rask will make the trip to Montreal for tomorrow night's game. Rask, who was in net for Providence's home-opening win Wednesday night, was summoned from the AHL on an emergency basis - once more spelling Manny Fernandez, who continues to struggle with his ailing knee.Chiarelli said surgery is not scheduled for Fernandez but it could not be ruled out.
"I don't know," said Chiarelli. "I guess we'll evaluate it again." Chiarelli said the Providence Bruins have the goaltending position covered with Jordan Sigalet and Mike Brown.
Ward still ailing
Aaron Ward, still bothered by a concussion he sustained last week, did not suit up for the Bruins. Andrew Ference, back in the lineup after a short stint on the injury list, took Ward's spot on the top defensive pairing with Zdeno Chara. According to Chiarelli, Ward still suffers symptoms of post-concussion syndrome. "But I don't expect he will be out too long," said Chiarelli . . . All of the Bruins' goals were scored at even strength, which left Dennis Wideman sporting an impressive plus-4, followed by Brandon Bochenski and Peter Schaefer, each with plus-3 . . . Maple Leafs winger Jason Blake, fighting cancer, had a game-high seven shots on net. Darcy Tucker had six . . . The Bruins swept the three stars: 1. Schaefer; 2. Glen Metropolit; and 3. Marc Savard . . . Amid mounting injuries and the paucity of scoring, Julien in recent games cobbled together an energy line, with Petteri Nokelainen centering rookie Milan Lucic and AHL veteran Jeremy Reich, the last of whom is the resident tough guy with Shawn Thornton sidelined by a foot fracture. "Our job is to go out and shake it up a little bit," Reich said prior to last night's game. "You know, it's an energy line - we try to be a momentum changer." Reich, whose energy provided a much-needed lift last season, had to wait a dozen games this season before he finally got called into action. The wait, noted Reich, can be agonizing. "Once I get the call, my job is to go out and skate . . . get in on the forecheck and hit," he said. "And [Julien] has been showing some confidence in me, putting me out there for penalty-killing duty, too."
