Alberts is living Bergeron's kind of life, even if doctors can't say for sure that the third-year blue liner suffered a concussion. Head injuries are nothing but headaches - and that's if you're lucky.
And the list goes on and on:
Aaron Ward (fractured left foot) could be out through January.
Glen Murray (hip flexor) might be out a couple of more games, but hips and groins are the fits and starts of the hockey industry. Murray is also 35 years old, putting him in an age group that adds gray areas to all injuries.
Bobby Allen, sidelined earlier in the month by back spasms, couldn't straighten up enough to play Sunday in a 4-2 loss to the Penguins.
Mix in Manny Fernandez's lost season (knee surgery), and the Bruins at the moment have $18 million in salary out of the lineup. That's more than one-third of the league's salary cap of $50.3 million.
Which brings us to the 1-4-1 slump the Bruins carried into their brief holiday respite. With so much top talent out of the lineup, could more be expected? Not really, even if solid citizens such as defenseman Andrew Ference spent time after Sunday's loss to discount the "walking wounded" factor.
To put it all off to injury, said Ference "would be a cop-out."
Even if Bergeron is the club's No. 1A center, as well as its undeclared future captain. Even if Murray, when his stick is alive, is the offensively-challenged squad's closest facsimile to a sniper. Even if Alberts plays a valued hitting game, one that he has reworked and made even more effective this season. And even if Ward brings such a stabilizing influence to a defensive corps that has played well beyond the sum of its parts most of the season.
Let's not forget, even when they were winning with some regularity back in November (7-4-2), the Bruins survived by the thinnest of margins, namely the netminding of Tim Thomas and the adherence to a simple but smart defensive system implemented by first-year coach Claude Julien. It was all the more impressive given that Bergeron, their most talented blend of offense and defense up front, wasn't around for any of it.
