Nathan Horton Injury Update

As far as his agent is concerned, Nathan Horton (concussion) should be ready to go when the Boston Bruins return to the ice in late summer.

"Nathan is coming along," Paul Krepelka told CSNNE.com via text message. "We would hope he is good to go at the start of training camp (ESPN)."

Horton missed the last 36 games last season (plus playoffs) with a concussion. Although the status of these types of injuries can change at anytime, the Bruins do sound like he should be ready to go when camp opens. This could be huge for the Bruins. Unless some major moves are made (trading Thomas/Krejci/ect) the Bruins are going to lose Chris Kelly to free agency. It's not they don't want him back, but they just don't have the cap space to bring him back. With Kelly gone, the Bruins will likely finally make the move to put Seguin at center, so you would have Krejci, Bergeron, and Seguin in center, and it would leave a glaring need for a wing to step up.

When the Bruins signed Horton I really thought he would be a 30+ goal scorer every year. I still think he has the skills to do it, and hopefully he can come back healthy and have a shot to do so. This is a big year for Horton, as this is the final year of his 6 year $24 million deal.

Horton Out for Playoffs

The Bruins have announced that Nathan Horton will miss the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn't much of a shock, but it's still a disappointment. Horton was a major part of the Bruins' 2011 Cup run, with 3 game winning goals (two of them in Game 7s). When he was injured by the Canucks, the Bruins seemed to focus their efforts and rally around him. And we all know how well that turned out.

Horton is the latest in a long line of talented players that have to watch NHL games from the stands because of concussions. And I don't think issuing 2 or 5 or even 10 game suspensions will solve the problem.

The players need to police themselves, not launch at opponents who have their heads down. It seems like concussions are occurring as often on clean hits as they are on dirty ones.

The rules need to be altered to allow for some clutching, grabbing, and interference. I don't want to see the game slow down, but give a defending player more options than just a hard shoulder check into the boards.

Anyway, I think we'll all miss Horton during this postseason.

-The Captain

Horton/Rask Back Skating

"Bruins forward Nathan Horton and goaltender Tuukka Rask skated for 40 minutes with strength and conditioning coach John Whitesides prior to Wednesday's practice at Ristuccia Arena. Neither players was not on the ice as the team began their practice Wednesday (WEEI)."

Horton has been out since late January. I won't get too pumped about getting him back though, as we have been down this road before only from him to have a setback and be shutdown.

As for Rask this is a good sign. It sounds more and more likely that he will be able to holdup his backup goaltending duties for the playoffs, which is important if anything happens to Thomas.

We have no word on Boychuk, which is my biggest concern. As Rob said earlier it sure didn't look good, and if he can't play in the playoffs then Corvo will be back on the ice, which no one wants.