Bruins: Nick Foligno out for Friday’s game against Buffalo

In Wednesday night’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins forward Nick Foligno left the game early. Now, it’s been revealed by the team that the veteran winger will be out day-to-day with an upper-body injury. With that, head coach Bruce Cassidy has also ruled him out for Friday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. Craig Smith was also absent at practice, but is still expected to play.

Cassidy also discussed the likely changes for the lineup against Buffalo because of Foligno’s injury. Here is their expected forward group. The names in bold will have different roles than they had in the team’s first two games.

Brad Marchand- Patrice Bergeron- David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall- Charlie Coyle- Craig Smith

Jake DeBrusk- Erik Haula- Karson Kuhlman

Anton Blidh– Trent Frederic– Tomas Nosek 

The top-six understandably will be remaining normal, but the bottom-six is having pretty seismic changes. Karson Kuhlman is jumping up to the third line, which is understandable given his nice goal against the Flyers. Although Frederic and Nosek will be remaining on the fourth line, they will be playing different positions. Frederic will moving to center, while Nosek will be playing right wing. Blidh was healthy scratched for both games, so he will be making his regular season debut. Notably, Chris Wagner did not get called up.

The Bruins will miss Foligno against Buffalo

Although Cassidy has listed Foligno’s injury as day-to-day, it is always a bummer when a player gets injured. In his small sample size on the Bruins’ third line, he’s looked solid. Foligno recorded his first assist as a Bruin in the season opener against the Stars on Jake DeBrusk’s goal. Had he remained healthy for the entirety of Wednesday’s night game, perhaps he would have found himself right back on the scoresheet. We’ll never know.

Although the Sabres are expected to be at the bottom of the NHL this year, they’ve been red hot out of the gate. They currently sport a 3-0-0 record and had two dominating wins against the Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks. Therefore, the Bruins being down a notable winger is certainly not a good thing.

We will have to wait and see how they handle themselves without Foligno. Here’s to hoping Cassidy’s timeline for Foligno is true and he’s back quickly.