Jeremy Swayman ruled out of Thursday’s game with upper-body injury
Swayman exited Wednesday's loss to the Devils due to an injury.
The hits keep on coming for the Boston Bruins.
Boston will be without its top netminder entering a critical matchup against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, with interim head coach Joe Sacco announcing that Jeremy Swayman is dealing with a minor injury and will not play at TD Garden.
Joonas Korpisalo will start Thursday night against Ottawa, while Providence goalie Michael DiPietro has been recalled and will serve as the team’s backup.
“Sways’s dealing with a little bit of an upper-body issue, minor,” Sacco said. “He came out after the second period last night, so with the quick turnaround here — obviously last night and tonight — we’re going to hold him out here tonight, and we’ll just monitor it day by day.”
Sacco added that Swayman’s ailment is not a lingering issue that he’s been fighting through, but something that sprouted up during Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Swayman played the first two periods of Wednesday’s game in Newark, but was replaced by Korpisalo for the final 20 minutes. At first glance, it looked as though Boston pulled Swayman in order to preserve him for the second leg of the back-to-back slate with Ottawa, but it was an injury that sidelined him.
Even with Swayman’s absence on Thursday, Sacco added that the team is “cautiously optimistic” that he’ll be cleared for Saturday’s matinee against the Colorado Avalanche.
Korpisalo stopped five of six shots in relief of Swayman on Wednesday, while DiPietro has put together a strong campaign down in the AHL this season (.930 save percentage over 22 games).
Elsewhere across Boston’s lineup, Trent Frederic will slot back in after missing the last two games due to illness. Both Charlie McAvoy (wrist) and Hampus Lindholm (knee) still remain out, with Boston’s cratering defense staring at another daunting matchup against a high-powered Ottawa offense.
“I still have no timeline just yet,” Sacco said of Lindholm and McAvoy’s recovery timeline. “They’re making progress, so again, like I said, we’ll keep monitoring them day by day.”
Another loss to the Senators on Thursday would spell bad news for the Bruins, who currently sit outside of the playoff picture and are tied with the Senators in points (52).
“I just expect a competitive game here tonight — both teams jockeying for position in the standings,” Sacco said. “The wild-card race right now, and where everybody sits — it’s pretty clogged up right now.
“I just expect a real competitive game here tonight from both sides. They lost their last game to the Rangers. We lost our last game, obviously. So you have two teams that are hungry for points here tonight.”
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