(Sunrise) Forward Patrice Bergeron did not accompany his Boston Bruins teammates to Florida ahead of Games 3 and 4 of their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Panthers.
The veteran Bruins captain missed the first game due to illness and the second due to an unspecified upper-body injury.
The third meeting of the series, which is equal to a victory for each side, will take place Friday evening at the Panthers’ home.
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said Bergeron is likely to be available for Game 5, which is Wednesday, April 26.
Bergeron finished third in scoring for the Bruins in the regular season with 27 goals and 31 assists for a total of 58 points.
The 37-year-old Bergeron suffered the injury in the first period of the Bruins’ last game of the season on April 13 in Montreal. He had also missed four of eight games towards the end of the season, when the Bruins had no more stakes. He returned to take part in the last two meetings.
“We wanted, I wanted, and ‘Bergy’ wanted the last two games to be a launch pad to get some momentum ahead of the playoffs,” Montgomery said.
” That’s life. Unfortunately, there was a problem in this last game. Even in hindsight, we would do things exactly the same way. That’s how easy it is to move forward when you don’t regret what you did, because it was a well thought out plan. ยป
The Bruins also mentioned that the availability of goaltender Linus Ullmark for Game 3 will be decided just before the opening face-off.
Ullmark led the National League in wins (40), goals-against average (1.89) and save percentage (.938) during the regular season.
