The Bruins are already opening up the season on October 12th, down three players as Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk are all recovering from off-season surgery. The injury bug has bitten the team again as Taylor Hall exited during the second period of Saturday’s preseason matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Early reports were that Hall would be on a day-to-day basis, but as per Jim Montgomery, that’s now changed:
At first, it wasn’t clear what caused Hall’s injury, but Ty Anderson of 98.5 reported what could’ve happened:
”Halfway through 13-minute mark of second period, Hall has awkward-looking collision into boards, gets up, looks fine, but almost immediately gets sticked down up high by Flyers’ Attard and lands real awkwardly. Out there for one more faceoff after that and that’s end of his day.‘’
Here’s a video showing exactly what happened to Hall in the second period:
Already missing their top left winger in Brad Marchand, the Bruins will now suffer a blow to their second best. The second line of Hall, Krejci, and Pastrnak was expected to be the Bruins’ top scoring line, and fans will now have to wait and see how the injury plays out. This is a significant blow as the season is less than two weeks away.
With the injury, fans may see top prospect Fabian Lysell get a shot in the early going as he would slide into the top-line wing spot alongside Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk. The elite defensive skill of Bergeron would help cover up any weaknesses Lysell has defensively.
Pavel Zacha would slide down to the second line giving the Bruins an all-Czech line that would thrive. This would also benefit Zacha as he would be paired with a high-end facilitator in Krejci and an elite goal scorer in Pastrnak, which would open up his offensive game.
Jim Montgomery has three preseason games left to find balance in his top six that can weather the storm till Hall can return. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, as the Bruins also have position battles brewing on their fourth line.
