Bruins
The injury bug has continued to sting the Bruins during this road trip out west.
The injury bug has continued to sting the Bruins during this road trip out west.
Just a day after Boston lost Brandon Carlo to an injury during Monday’s shootout loss to the Avalanche, the Bruins lost both goaltender Linus Ullmark and forward Matt Poitras during Tuesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Coyotes.
Ullmark exited the game 2:40 into overtime while lunging to make a save, while Poitras did not return to the contest after colliding with Coyotes skater Sean Durzi early in the third period.
Postgame, Jim Montgomery noted that Ullmark and Poitras were sidelined by a lower-body and upper-body injury, respectively, but did not have a concrete timeline as to how long both players could be sidelined.
“I don’t know the extent of it,” Montgomery said. “I’ll know more the next time we’re all together.”
Ullmark, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, dropped to the ice in pain while deflecting a sailing shot from Logan Cooley during the extra period. After getting attended to by trainers on the ice, Ullmark needed help getting off the frozen sheet before making his way to the locker room.
Jeremy Swayman stepped in for Ullmark for the final minutes of overtime, with Nick Schmaltz securing the game-winner via a shot that clanged off the post and into Boston’s net.
“Obviously it’s hard for a goaltender to sit on the bench for three hours and then come in with an unfortunate injury,” David Pastrnak said of Swayman’s showing.
Ullmark, who stopped 32 shots before exiting with his injury, has formed the backbone of the Bruins’ success over the last three years next to Swayman. Ullmark, who is 13-5-2 with a .916 save percentage, has appeared in 21 games this season — the same number of outings as Swayman.
Even though Swayman (11-3-6, .920 save percentage) has held the slight edge as far as his stat line this season, Boston has benefited from divvying up a near 50/50 split in reps between the two netminders.
Based on the optics of Ullmark’s injury, that goalie rotation might be halted for some time. Boston is traveling to Las Vegas and will have an off day on Wednesday, so any concrete information about Ullmark’s status may not be available until Thursday.
Meanwhile, Poitras appeared to be favoring his shoulder after colliding with Durzi and hitting the ice hard.
The rookie logged 8:34 of ice time before leaving the game. Tuesday marked Poitras’s third game back from the World Junior Championships in Sweden, with the 19-year-old pivot recording a pair of helpers in his first game back with Boston on Saturday against the Lightning.
Even though Carlo exited Boston’s loss to Colorado on Monday with an upper-body injury, Montgomery tabbed him on Tuesday as “day-to-day,” noting that the stay-at-home defenseman is still with the team during this four-game road trip.
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