The Boston Bruins announced Friday that forward Rich Peverley will be out four to six weeks with a third-degree MCL sprain in his right knee.
Peverley suffered the injury as a result of a knee-on-knee collision with Canadiens defenseman Hal Gill in the second period of the Bruins' 4-3 shootout win Wednesday night at Montreal.
Peverley didn't join his teammates on their trip Thursday to Winnipeg, and instead headed home to have the knee examined in Boston. The team is in the midst of a six-game road trip.
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"It's unfortunate," Bruins coach Claude Julien told the media in Winnipeg Friday. "He logs a lot of minutes during the game. With [Nathan] Horton out already, those are two guys that play a lot of minutes for us. It's going to be a challenge for us. That's just part of the game."
With Peverley out, Daniel Paille will move up to the third line with Chris Kelly and Jordan Caron, and Benoit Pouliot will move onto the wing with Milan Lucic and David Krejci.
Josh Hennessy will make his debut centering Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell.
Bruins players said Thursday that Peverley's injury will force them to adapt and "step up."
"I think we've been there before many times and we have good depth," Krejci said. "It's not a good situation when one of your good players goes down, and now we have Horty [Horton] and him. But we gotta battle through it and I'm sure those two guys will be back soon."
Said Paille: "I think we've done pretty well so far. Obviously with Nathan hurt, it's affected us a little bit, but at the same time we haven't had anybody step up and I think it's time with having a couple guys out, certain guys are going to play a little bit more and all we need to help out."
