Bruins forward out for couple of weeks with lower-body injury

Lucic, 35, suffered the injury blocking a shot during Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. He finished the game with an assist in 12:15 of ice time as the Bruins ended up winning the game 4-2. He missed the following two games against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday and the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, and Montgomery has now confirmed that the injury will keep Lucic out for a bit longer.

Lucic was off to an OK start with two assists in four games, a 0.5 point per game pace that would be the first time he’s hovered around that mark since 2016-17, although it’s still an extremely small sample size. He’s coming off the least-productive season of his career in 2022-23, where he had just seven goals, 12 assists and 19 points in 77 games with the Calgary Flames.

Lucic was originally a second-round pick of the Bruins in the 2006 NHL Draft, spending the first eight seasons of his career in Boston and winning a Stanley Cup in 2011. After he was traded to the Kings in 2015, he played one season there before he signed a seven-year contract in free agency with the Edmonton Oilers, and played three seasons there before playing out the rest of it with the Calgary Flames. He then signed his current one-year, $1M contract to return to the Bruins, and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason.

The Bruins also announced that center Jakub Lauko will be out for at least the next week with a fracture after taking a skate blade to his face during Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks. He has currently been held pointless in six games with the Bruins this season.

Patrick Brown has currently acted as the replacement in the lineup for Lucic, although he also played in Saturday’s game against the Kings as he slotted in for Jake DeBrusk, who was healthy scratched after arriving late to a team meeting. However, with Lauko also out, the Bruins may play a man short for Thursday’s game against the Ducks, as current line rushes have Danton Heinen on the Bruins’ fourth line, who is currently only on a professional tryout contract with the team.