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Bruins’ Torey Krug just suffered a completely gruesome ankle injury

By Michelle Bruton

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 21: Torey Krug #47 of the Boston Bruins takes a shot against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period of Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round in the 2018 Stanley Cup play-offs at TD Garden on April 21, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Leafs defeat the Bruins 4-3. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 21: Torey Krug #47 of the Boston Bruins takes a shot against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period of Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round in the 2018 Stanley Cup play-offs at TD Garden on April 21, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Leafs defeat the Bruins 4-3. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Bruins came to fight against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4, forcing overtime. But they suffered a major loss in the third period when defenseman Torey Krug suffered a gruesome ankle injury.

Depth has been a major asset for the Boston Bruins all season long, especially when it’s come to their defensive corps.

With both Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara missing time earlier this season and the Bruins losing Brandon Carlo for the entire postseason, Torey Krug has been an essential piece for the Bruins on defense, playing in 76 regular-season games and every game of the postseason so far.

Krug’s time on ice has gotten as high as 25:16 (in Game 3 vs. the Maple Leafs) and he’s put in 20 or more minutes in most games.

That’s why the admittedly gruesome ankle injury he suffered on Friday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning is so worrisome.

Be warned: it looks even worse in slow motion:

Krug was able to get off the ice under his own power to head back to the dressing room, but just barely.

The chill in the air in TD Garden was palpable, and it likely reminded some Boston fans of Gordon Hayward’s (admittedly much more gruesome) ankle injury at the beginning of the Celtics’ season.

According to the Chief of Sports Medicine at Tufts in Boston, this could be serious — really serious:

Already being down Carlo, losing Krug would put an immense amount of strain on Boston’s blue line. The silver lining is that the Bruins have their top pairing available in Chara and McAvoy, but without Krug on the second pairing, Matt Grzelcyk would have to bump up next to Kevan Miller — as he did when Krug left Friday’s game.

Grzelcky had a ghastly showing in Game 3 of this series, so fans, aside from fretting about the severity of Krug’s injury, were likely holding their collective breath when Grzelcyk took the ice. However, he came up with a huge stop on Nikita Kucherov in the final seconds of regulation, saving what very likely could have been a walk-off, game-winning goal.

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The Bruins have shown enough on offense tonight to suggest that they can still skate with this Tampa team. But suffering this kind of blow on defense will be very difficult for them to mitigate if they move on to the Eastern Conference Final.

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