Chris Nichols

­Chris Nichols is Sportsnet.ca's fantasy hockey writer.

The Boston Globe reports that Marc Savard has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 concussion from that hit by Matt Cooke. GM Peter Chiarelli said the team will know more about Savard's condition and how much time he'll miss in four-to-five days.

"That he felt like he got hit by a bus, and that he was very tired,'' Chiarelli said of the text message he received from Savard yesterday. "Those are two major symptoms of a concussion. It's a bad concussion.''

The team is not expecting their star centre back anytime soon, which means poolies are going to have to find another option for at least the near future and potentially to close out the season. Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci will have to pick up some of that slack for the Bruins. Bergeron has five helpers in his past seven games, but hasn't scored since January 21st. Krejci has points back-to-back, but had just one in his prior seven.

The Bruins currently occupy eighth spot in the East.

GUERIN'S BACK BETTER
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that RW Bill Guerin, who missed the past three games because of back spasms, practiced Monday and reported no problem.

"I felt OK," he said. "It's not so much my back. It's just a matter of sitting around for three days and not being able to do anything. But I felt good."

If the progress continues and he plays on Thursday @CAR, the PPG expects him to slot in alongside Chris Kunitz and Sidney Crosby as usual. Pascal Dupuis, who has been filling in on L1, might then take Matt Cooke's slot on L3 if Cooke draws a suspension for the Savard hit.

Alexei Ponikarovsky, incidentally, has a point in each of his two starts with the Pens since coming over from Toronto.

GRABOVSKI READY
Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski should be back from his broken wrist tonight.

"I'm excited, my wrist is OK and I'm ready to play," Grabovski told The Toronto Sun on Monday. "There was a lot of contact today (two assistant coaches spent half an hour working him in one-on-one battles along the boards). My wrist is sore, but it's normal.

"The last 17 games, I want to play hard, like usual. It doesn't matter which line I'm on."

Stay tuned for the live blogging and you'll find out what Ron Wilson has in store. Grabovski had 25 points (7-18) in 42 GP before getting hurt and that included just two in his past 10.

QUOTABLE
"You go from a huge roller coaster of emotions and all of a sudden it comes to a stop," Corey Perry told The Orange County Register of returning from the Olympics. "You come back here and you've got to find that emotion again. To find that emotion and find that intensity and then bring it into this room, it's going to help us and our team. That's what we've got to do.

"We have to have that passion to go out there and win again."

PREDS MAKING CHANGES
The Nashville Predators are currently seventh in the West and after dropping their past two games, Barry Trotz has decided to make some line combo switches. The Tennessean notes that if tonight's game follows Monday's practice, Colin Wilson and Martin Erat will be flanking Jason Arnott on the first line. Marcel Goc had Steve Sullivan and Patric Hornqvist on his wings, while the normal line of David Legwand with Jerred Smithson and Joel Ward remained intact. J.P. Dumont, Dustin Boyd, Cal O'Reilly and Jordin Tootoo were rotating in the last line at practice.

For what it's worth though, Trotz had this to say about practice vs. game scenarios: "Sometimes you just want to change the feel of practice, so that's all we did there, just moved guys around,'' Trotz noted. "We're going to need everyone in and everyone is going to play different roles. I can guarantee you lines won't (always) stay the same from practice to games. They're going to be moved around. We're going to get the match-ups we want, plain and simple.''

Dan Ellis, who remains the odd man out in net for the Preds this summer with Pekka Rinne inked to that two-year extension recently, will get the start between the pipes tonight. He's just trying to go with the flow.

"The way the season has gone, I've gone through a lot of different roles,'' Ellis told The Tennessean. "I came out of training camp as maybe a bit of a starter then went into a rotation and sat for most of November, then back into a rotation and then kind of more of a back-up role.

"I just want to try to earn the (starter's role). ... Any team that makes the playoffs or goes deep in the playoffs, I think you can always look to goaltending to be a strong suit. I just want to be one of those guys that provide that for the team.''

QUOTABLE
"If you keep dwelling on where you're at, it becomes a very weight-bearing thing," Flames coach Brent Sutter told The Calgary Herald. "And mentally it's such a struggle. You can't think about it like that.

"You don't worry about where you're at. You focus in on . . . where you want to get."