Bruins head coach Claude Julien fielded questions from the media following Monday's practice at TD Garden. The question on everyone's minds of couse was "will Patrice Bergeron play in Game 2?". To that, Julien declined comment before saying, "I don’t know. Is that better? I don’t know."
The Bruins bench boss went on to say that the team is following protocol and cannot put a timeline on Bergeron's return at this point:
"Well, as I said the other day, we’re going through the protocol of what he has to go through. There’s not much more to update you guys on except that I think, when he is ready to go, I think you guys will know it. It’s just something that you can’t predict, how quickly, or how slow it’s going to be. It’s just one of those situations where, right now, you see him going through what you saw him going through today’s skating. But that’s protocol, and right now, we’re not ready to make any comments because he’s just going through those stages."
Personally, I would be very surprised to see Patrice Bergeron on the ice for the Bruins tomorrow. Based on the fact that he has not participated in a full-contact practice. Most sports head injury experts advise that a player be symptom-free for 24 hours after a full-contact practice. The earliest that Bergeron would be cleared for a full-contact practice would be tomorrow and with only a morning skate scheduled, the earliest that he could participate in a full-contact practice would be Wednesday. That means that if everything goes perfectly, the earliest that Bergeron would likely be clear for game action (if following the widely-accepted protocol) would be Thursday for Game 3. Of course, this is assuming that everything goes perfectly, which is not always the case with head injuries. As Julien pointed out "you can't predict, how quickly, or how slow it's going to be".
H/T to Stanley Cup of Chowder member SkateHitShoot for the link to the concussion assessment tool