Bruins star winger out week-to-week

Bruins head coach Joe Sacco announced that left-winger Brad Marchand is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury (via Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal ).

The captain missed Sundays loss to the Wild after exiting the prior days game against the Penguins in the first period following a massive hit from defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph .

He has not been placed on injured reserve but could be ahead of Thursdays road game against the Hurricanes to allow Boston to carry an extra forward.

The aging star has been remarkably durable over the past few seasons, only missing a handful of games since offseason hip surgery ate into the beginning of his 2022-23 campaign.

Hed also been on a hot streak entering the game against Pittsburgh, totaling 4-610 in his last 10 games.

The injury designation comes just three days ahead of the trade deadline, but while Marchand is on an expiring contract, he doesnt want to be moved and isnt among the expanding group of players Boston is listening to trade offers for, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.

Of course, his injury also limited the Bruins' minimal likelihood of gaining ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Theyve gone 1-2-2 coming out of the 4 Nations break, and while they only sit two points back of the Red Wings for the second wild card spot, theres three teams between them and Detroit.

Theyve also played more games than the teams theyre chasing.

As such, their playoff odds have dropped to 9.4%, per MoneyPuck .

Overall, this season has evidenced the 36-year-olds slow but noticeable decline.

With 21-2647 in 61 games, hes on pace for his lowest offensive output since the 2014-15 season.

The teams overall struggles to generate scoring chances this year also mean Marchand is on track to post a minus rating for the first time since his initial 20-game trial in Boston in 2009-10.

Still, hes been the best forward Boston has to offer outside of star David Pastrnak , still significantly outpacing its other top-six names like Charlie Coyle , Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha .

With Marchand and Trent Frederic both on the shelf at the moment and the latter expected to be moved before Fridays deadline, recent call-up Georgii Merkulov will get the opportunity to fill their top-six hole.

The 24-year-old has just one assist in nine career NHL games but is tied for second on AHL Providence in scoring with 44 points in 47 games.

This article first appeared on Pro Hockey Rumors and was syndicated with permission..

This article has been shared from the original article on yardbarker, here is the link to the original article.