Following up on previous reports, Philadelphia Flyers left-winger Simon Gagne is scheduled for an MRI on his big right toe today. The 30-year-old had surgery last Friday on the broken toe, but is expected to hit the ice as early as this afternoon if all goes well. Gagne posted 0-2-2 in four playoffs games against the N.J. Devils last series, and averaged 18:11 minutes of ice time — 3:42 on the PP (4th most amongst forwards) and 2:51 on the PK.

Trentonian.com

Skating Friday could get Gagne back in the lineup sooner than expected. It depends on the schedule that comes out for the second round, but Gagne may be able to make it back for Game 4, but more likely Game 5 of the next round, if all goes according to plan.

Since receiving 60-70 stitches above his right eye after blocking a Paul Martin slapshot in Game 5 of the quarterfinals against the Devils last Thursday, Flyers right-winger Ian Laperriere is out for the remainder of the playoffs. The 36-year-old right-winger averaged 12:16 of ice time in all five quarterfinals playoff games, but had over a third of that time — 4:27 — coming on the shorthand/PK.

Philly.com/inquirer/sports

Laperriere is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs because of a brain contusion and concussion he suffered while blocking a shot. That means [Blair] Betts will have a new linemate and penalty-killing partner when the Flyers open the Eastern Conference semifinals Saturday at Boston at 12:30 p.m.

Betts and Laperriere formed a dynamic penalty-killing unit that helped the Flyers kill 28 of 32 power plays (87.5 percent) in the five-game series against New Jersey.

The Boston Bruins posted an update on the improvement of center Marc Savard on the Media portion of their website, approximately 45 minutes ago.

“On Tuesday afternoon, Marc Savard passed his neuropsychological testing. He will continue to work towards regaining his game shape, and will have a final meeting with Dr. Kelly McInnis at MassGeneral Hospital before being cleared to play in games. There is no date or time line scheduled for this meeting.”

Now that he’s got the Doctor’s approval, expect to see Savvy start practicing with his teammates in a non-contact red jersey as soon as tomorrow in the Bruins’ morning skate at the TD Garden.

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After 16 shifts and 14:07 of ice time against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday, Bruins’ forward Miroslav Satan sat out on Thursday night against the Flyers with an apparent groin injury. The 35-year-old Satan, however, was back at practice with the B’s yesterday morning — in preparation for tonight’s opponents: Montreal Canadiens.

“We’ll see how he is. It will be a mediacal thing with the trainers” said head coach Claude Julien. “He practiced today…you don’t want to be risking losing a player for a long period of time here. So we’ll see what comes out of this.”

Satan — 4-4-8 scoring totals, plus-3, and 28 shots on goal through 23 games — has been replaced by 21-year-old Brad Marchand, lined with Vladimir Sobotka and Milan Lucic.

After suffering a Grade 2 concussion on Sunday afternoon — courtesy of a cheapshot from headhunter Matt Cooke — Marc Savard could miss the rest of the 2009-10 season. Joe Haggerty of CSNN first reported this on Twitter, after Savard had met with doctors at MGH before the Bruins 5-1 victory over the Flyers tonight.

Just got a text from Peter Chiarelli: Marc Savard met w/brain specialist “and it doesn’t look good about a return for this year”

For a team standpoint: Bergeron and Krejci continue to elevate their play in lieu of their No. 1 center; combining for 3-4-7 totals, plus-4, and 6 SOG over the last two games.

From a personal standpoint: The hit, injury, and non-suspension decision by Colin Campbell remains sickening.

After playing just 1:34 in yesterday’s 3-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens, Bruins’ center David Krejci played just three shifts before leaving with an undisclosed injuryduring the Original Six matchup. Krecji, who will be playing for Team Czech Republic in just a few days in the 2010 Winter Olympics, did end up making the trip to Buffalo.

“It’s the leg, obviously.” Claude Julien said today after an optional skate in Buffalo. “When you saw him limping off the ice and tried to skate again and he couldn’t, so hopefully he’ll be better tomorrow.”

Positive signs as Krejci seems as if he’s good-to-go for tomorrow’s game against the  Sabres.

“I think it’s looking good from what I’ve heard. It’s getting better. We’ll see tomorrow morning when he skates and see how it feels”  Julien added.

After Johnny Boychuk was struck with a shot to the left-side of his head with a puck during Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, blue-liner Andrew Ference made an earlier-than-expected recovery from his groin injury. Ference, who was sidelined after leaving a game against the Ottawa Senators in the second period on Jan. 5, filled-in for the scarily-injured No.55

“I think he handled himself really, really well -  if anything I really felt he really stabilized our D-core back there.”  caoch Julien said of the 30-year-old veteran defenseman. “He gave our back-end some confidence – taking some minutes from our guys that have been playing some big minutes which was very helpful, so it was good to have him back”

The juggling-act for the Bruins seems to be getting old, fast. Get one player back and another is unexpectedly out of the lineup. Now 94 man-games lost to injury on the season, the injury-bug knows no time zones, as the vicious cycle carried its way to California with the B’s for three more games.

The biggest surprise was the “undisclosed injury” to David Krejci. After playing nearly 19 minutes in Wednesday’s contest against the Ducks, Krejci was a late scratch Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks. The “injury” couldn’t have been much of a concern whatsoever. No. 46 returned to lineup on Saturday against the Kings and logged 22:27 of total ice time [the most amongst all forwards], with an assist, plus-2, and three shots on goal.

Insert Krejci back into the lineup and take one out. Marco Sturm did not play, nor dress, on Saturday against the Kings with an apparent leg injury. Despite tallying 1-1-2, a plus-1 rating, and seven shots on goal in the previous two road games, Julien said the injury was not related to the San Jose game on Thursday.

“It’s a little bit of creeping up.” Julien said. “It’s not a specific injury from the San Jose game…he’s considered day-to-day.”

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