Bruins down a man as they battle for a playoff spot.

Bruins forward sidelined with lower-body injury

Bruins depth winger Jimmy Hayes has been sidelined with a lower body injury sustained in Saturday’s blowout of the Florida Panthers.

Head coach of the Boston Bruins, Bruce Cassidy confirmed Hayes injured status, he is currently listed as day-to-day.

The loss of the 27-year-old winger presents a bit of a mixed blessing. His absence will open up a potential spot for some of Boston’s young talent pool, and it won’t be to hard to replace Hayes’ offensive production (he has 2 goals and three assists in 58 games). However, his 300 games of NHL experience could be sorely missed as the Bruins try and keep themselves in a playoff berth as the regular season draws to an exciting close in the East.

The Bruins sit in the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 41-40-6 record, good for 88 points over 77 games.

Carolina, Tampa Bay and the New York Islanders are all technically still in the running for that Wild Card spot with lnly four points separating the teams.

Hayes will join forwards Frank Vatrano and Tim Schaller on the day-to-day injured player list, probably necessitating a call up from the AHL’s Providence Bruins.

Boston’s next game is against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, where they can settle for nothing but a win against on of the leagues hottest teams if the Bruins want to control their playoff own playoff destiny.  

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