Bruins blue liners target November returns: Zdeno Chara, Tory Krug have both been out since late October

November 8th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

Bruins defensemen Tory Krug and Zdeno Chara have been absent from the Boston blue line for over a week now with various injuries.

Chara has missed seven games since he tore his PCL on October 23^rd but was reportedly in good spirits when he was made available to the media Tuesday. Chara claimed to be alright and despite wearing a brace on his knee said he had been able to keep up with upper body workouts during the week.

As for when he might return, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli ‘conservatively’ estimated between four to six weeks from the date of the injury as being a possible time for Chara’s. In calendar dates that translates to a return anywhere between Thanksgiving weekend and the first week of December.

On Tuesday, Chara refused to detail any recovery plan or recalculated return day.

“I wish I could tell you guys exactly when I'm going to return," said Chara. "But as this point, it's really such a slow process, that who knows when the day is going to be."

The obvious good news that came out of Chara’s recent interactions with the media has been the reassurance that he still will likely not need surgery.

“It's always nice to be able to avoid surgery, so we'll see how it goes and obviously it was good news," he said.

The Bruins have been indecisive about Chara’s condition and what they tell the media about it. Understandably, his situation is fluid. Knee injuries like his, especially at his age have been known to take very long stretches of time to heal.

Krug’s injury however is much simpler from a medical standpoint. Krug was injured in an October 28^th game against the Wild when a hard slash broke his left pinky finger. He was seen with the finger immobilized for roughly a week after the injury before he was able to practice with the team Friday.

"It's doing well. It's coming along nicely, made some good progress the last couple days," Krug said. "And it's great to be back on the ice with my teammates, and competing and everything like that, so it's feeling better, that's for sure."  

He was seen in immense pain after the slash but was laughing it all off Friday evening.

"It's not a good feeling - obviously you could see my reaction on the ice, but it's alright. It's feeling good, feeling better and hopefully I'll be back soon,” he said.

One possible reason for his mirth might be the fact that he could very well be active for Monday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. What it will come down will be if the Bruins trainers felt confident enough in Krug’s recovery after Friday’s practice to let him play.

“…if he's given the OK by the medical staff, I'll be more than happy to put him in,” Bruins coach Claude Jullian said. “But I haven't been given the OK yet. I keep saying that - I don't anticipate anything until somebody tells me something."

If Krug does not manage to sneak into the lineup Saturday, it will actually be partially good because, as he detailed Friday, he is still struggling to get a good grip on his stick without a fully healed pinky.

“You never realize what big part your fingers play I guess, but it's just one of those things you have to get comfortable with moving on and taking those baby steps," Krug said.  

He said that most of Friday’s practice was just him trying to get his skating game back up to speed no matter when he returns.

"A couple of drills today, there was a lot more skating for the forwards and obviously being out for a week, they wanted me to get my skating legs underneath me," Krug said. "But yeah, maybe work on the hands a little bit more [too]."

The Bruins injury ridden defenders are working relentlessly to get back into game shape in the shortest time possible. The team needs that now more than ever as, not even one quarter of the way through the season, their players are suddenly getting bitten by the injury bug.

Beyond Chara and Krug, Warsofsky, Kevin Miller and center David Krejci are all battling injuries.

“Those injuries don’t always come at the greatest of times,” Julien said. “[But] we’ve just got to live with it, and adjust.”