As the Bruins prepared to continue their five-game road trip in San Jose on Saturday, rugged forward Mark Kastelic returned to Boston to deal with an upper body injury. He’s out for at least the rest of the road trip that will continue on to Los Angeles, Anaheim and Detroit.
“We’ll know more when we get back from the trip,” interim coach Joe Sacco told reporters in San Jose.
What exactly his injury is not clear. Kastelic missed time with a concussion that he suffered on January 9 in a loss in Tampa when he got in a late-game altercation with the Lightning’s Emil Lilleberg and his head hit the ice. He returned nine days later, but in his second game back he had a setback when he took a reverse hit from Macklin Celebrini and he missed two more weeks.
Despite the missed time, Kastelic leads the Bruins in hits 218.
His rugged style and willingness to drop the gloves have made Kastelic a fan favorite, and B’s management has taken a liking to him as well. On January 3, the B’s signed Kastelic, who arrived in Boston last summer in the Linus Ullmark trade, to a three-year extension worth $1.566 million.
With Kastelic out, Jakub Lauko will shift down to the fourth line and Fabian Lysell will draw in to play with his Swedish countryman Elias Lindholm and Russian wing Marat Khusnutdinov. With the loss of Kastelic, Lysell shoulder get a longer look than one game.
“He’s only played in one game this year (December 28 versus Columbus) and I thought in the one game he did play, he did a good job, showed some offensive capabilities,” said Sacco of Lysell. “He’s going to get more of an opportunity on that line, he’ll get some more minutes. Offensively, he’s got to be able to make some plays for us, produce some offense for us, whether it’s offense in the zone or through the neutral zone off the rush. And his details and habits have to be solid away from the puck.”
Defenseman Michael Callahan will also draw into the lineup while Ian Mitchell will come out. Joonas Korpisalo gets the start.
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