Cassidy said Krejci's absence isn't significantly affecting the Bruins' preparation, but there are concerns that he might not be in game shape for the series opener. The Bruins haven't played since May 16, when they completed a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final.
"Obviously, we'd like to have him out there," Cassidy said. "We're going through some things, special teams with his [power-play] group, certain tendencies with St. Louis that we're trying to practice against or trying to defend against or trying to exploit on the opposite side of things. He'll miss that. But at the end of the day, he's been around a long time, a very cerebral player, so that part of it I'm not concerned about. He can pick things up in a hurry.
"It's more about when you miss two, three days, do you have your legs, do you have your stamina? You know we're not banging out there, but we have [hit] a little more the last few [practices], starting to get back into the physicality part of it or at least a feel for that. So that'll be more a concern more than strategy. I believe just missing this bit of time, you lose a bit of that getting back to the grind. So he'll have to catch up with it."
