Savard close to a practice return

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Savard is close to a practice return

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By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com

BOSTON – While Marc Savard is making steady improvement and pushing himself, Claude Julien says the center won't be playing in games before December at the earliest.

The B's coach said Savard is "close" to joining the Bruins at regular practice, but still has some hurdles to climb before taking contact with the rest of the his teammates.

But anybody hoping for a Savard return immediately after Thanksgiving is going to have to play a little bit of a waiting game – as the Bruins have been since their playmaking center came down with the post-concussion syndrome symptoms over the summer.

"[Savard's] return certainly won't be before December," said Claude Julien. "So he still has to go through a couple of things before he can start practicing and taking contact with us."

While a November return to actually playing games has been ruled out, Julien indicated the Bruins will soon find some practice time to get Savard back into the flow after being on the outside working on conditioning and recovery for such a long period.

"Marc [Savard] is pretty close. He's not there yet," said Julien. "We hope that in the next, I guess, few days or a week from now that he'll be able to join us [at practice]. He's getting close. His conditioning is getting better and -- I think after that -- he needs to go through a few other tests and then we can move forward with him."

Center David Krejci, on the other hand, has been practicing with the rest of the team for the last 4-5 days and is quickly approaching a return to the lineup after nearly two weeks on the shelf.

That could arguably happen as quickly as Saturday night against the Los Angeles Kings at TD Garden, but that would certainly depend on how practice goes at Ristuccia Arena on Friday.