After playing better under interim head coach Joe Sacco after the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19, they are facing a big five-game road trip over nine days beginning Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets. Could the Black and Gold be minus one key forward when the trip begins? That’s where we’ll begin this edition of Boston Bruins News.
David Pastrnak dealing with an injury
On Monday at Warrior Ice Arena, Bruins star forward David Pastrnak was not on the ice, which raised some eyebrows. Following the practice, Sacco said that his leading scorer was dealing with an upper-body injury and that he’s hopeful ge could play against the Jets.
"He's dealing with an upper-body issue so we held him off today,’’ said Sacco. “He's going to be traveling with us. We're hopeful that he's ready to go tomorrow. We'll see how he presents tomorrow."
Sacco also did say that they are not planning on bringing an extra forward on the trip with them which could be considered some good news, but this is worth keeping an eye on. Losing Pastrnak is something that they would not be able to replace in the lineup.
Joe Sacco responds to John Tortorella’s claim
After the Bruins’ 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, Flyers head coach John Tortorella didn’t hold back on what he thought of the Bruins diving in an attempt to call penalties against his team. The veteran coach didn’t even need a question to be asked before his rant.
“One thing I teach my team to do is not dive,’’ said Tortorella. “Maybe I should start teaching them that, the way this has gone here, the way this shit goes on, maybe I should start teaching them how to dive.”
After practice Monday, Sacco responded to those comments and said that that’s not what the Bruins are about. It should be noted that the Bruins and Flyers don’t play again in 2024-25 after Boston won the season series, 2-1-0.
"That's not our group,’’ Sacco said. “I mean, that's not our team, and that's not how we play. That's how I respond to that. That's not what we're about."