Pregame Skate 3/14: McQuaid, Kelly Out

BOSTON, MA - Following Wednesday’s off day, the B’s were all back together at TD Garden Thursday morning for pregame skate, before facing off in their second of three meetings against the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. (ET).

There were only two Bruins missing from the ice, as GM Peter Chiarelli announced yesterday that Chris Kelly is out indefinitely with a broken left tibia (full update found on BostonBruins.com) and Adam McQuaid did not join the team for skate. Instead, he took some turns with Strength & Conditioning Coach John Whitesides as the skate began to break up.

Tuukka Rask was first off the ice, but not long before Anton Khudobin. Though, due to Khudobin playing Tuesday night and Tuukka not getting the back-to-back due to him battling the flu, I’d take a strong guess that No. 40 will be back between the pipes tonight.

With McQuaid out, Aaron Johnson will get the call, though it’s not clear yet if he will slide in next to Andrew Ference on the third pairing, or if Coach will switch up the defensive pairings (if Johnson simply slots in, it would be Chara-Boychuk, Seidenberg-Hamilton, Ference-Johnson).

Here are line rushes from the skate:
Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Pandolfo-Peverley-Caron
Paille-Campbell-Thornton (MacDermid rotating in)

Stay tuned to updates on Twitter @NHLBruins and on BostonBruins.com as the gameday progresses…

-Caryn Switaj ^CS