Isn’t it fitting that on the very night that the Bruins receive the latest dose of bad news regarding the health of Marc Savard, they go out and have one of their most offensively lacking performances in recent memory? 

That’s the way it went down when the B’s fell to the Kings on Monday night in a 2-0 contest (recap). The offense struggled to get legitimate bids on Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick, and, predictably, the former UMass goalie gave the B’s very little to work with. Quick came away with his fifth shutout of the season and fifth career win over the Bruins (5-0-0). Tim Thomas, who played well enough to win and was outstanding for most of the night, was handed his first regulation loss since Dec. 20 and second road regulation loss of the season. 

But the game wasn’t about Thomas, nor was the day. Despite the Vezina favorite receiving the distinction of being the NHL’s First Star of the Week Monday, the day was of course about Savard. After taking that hit into the boards from Matt Hunwick on Saturday -- a hit the average NHL player can expect to take from time to time in his career – word emerged Monday that 33-year-old has another concussion and is out indefinitely. The team was brief and to-the-point when addressing it, but aside from “moderate concussion” and “no timetable,” there really isn’t much else to say. 

“After being examined by the Bruins medical staff today, Marc has been diagnosed with a moderate concussion,” Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said in a statement. “There is no timetable on his return and no further updates at this time.”

Shortly after the internet finished its first round of reactions to the news, the B’s, who by the numbers have been nothing short of offensively magnificent of late (4.0 goals per game in January entering Monday night), couldn’t beat Quick, and probably wouldn’t have been able to beat many other goaltenders for the majority of the night. 

Milan Lucic provided five shots on goal as he skated with David Krejci and Nathan Horton, his linemates to open the season with Savard out with post-concussion syndrome. Yet Horton had just one shot, which came in the first period, and given the ineffectiveness throughout the offense, Claude Julien was forced to shake things up mid-game. 

Born from the in-game line adjustments was a line of Tyler Seguin centering Blake Wheeler and Horton. For short, we’ll call the line of top-five picks the Central Scouting Line. Whatever you want to call it, it didn’t work. The Central Scouting Line was the only line to finish the night with a minus-1 rating, as all three members were on the ice in the third period when Andrew Ference turned the puck over at the blueline of the offensive zone on the play that resulted in Andrei Loktionov’s third-period goal.

In Savard’s 25 games with the B’s this year, he has not been one of the best centers in the league, nor has he even approached being a standout center on his own team (2 G, 8 A, minus-7). That was to be expected, as a big part of his return is catching up to the pace of the NHL game with a clean bill of health and finding his touch once again. That’s why, despite how big a loss Savard is for however long he’s out, the 2010-11 Bruins team that Boston has observed all year is capable of motoring along without No. 91. They’ve seen it.

Looking at the numbers, the Bruins have received much more scoring with Savard in the lineup. In the 24 games the team has played without him, they have averaged 2.58 goals per game. In the 25 games he's played, they've gotten 3.52 goals per game, meaning that with Savard in the lineup, the Bruins have averaged almost an entire goal more per game than they have without him. Given his 10 points and minus-7 rating, it seems those numbers are awfully deceiving.  

The Bruins will be able to weather another Savard-less stretch as long as they get some (or, ideally all) of the following: Consistent output from the Marchand-Bergeron-Recchi line, more signs of life from Nathan Horton (one goal in his last 19 games, though he’s still clearly capable of being the team’s best scorer), improved play from David Krejci, and the continued development of guys like Seguin and Wheeler (though in the case of the latter, it might be appropriate to start saying “better play” rather than “continued development). This is a team that’s offensively capable, even when their best offensive asset isn’t going. 

The bottom line is that this is a team that has gotten used to playing without Savard. They played the final 18 games of the regular season went onto the second round of the playoffs before he returned to the lineup following last season’s March 7 Matt Cooke.

More recently, they were forced to get their feet wet and start building their regular season identity without their top center, jumping out to a 13-8-2 record before he returned on Dec. 2. How long will Savard be out this time? Will it be like David Krejci’s moderate concussion earlier in the year that cost him six games, or will it be worse? To speculate on a player with a concussion is a dicey game, so until more information emerges, “for the time being” is what we’ll have to go with. And “for the time being,” the Bruins will have to march forward without their playmaking center. Just like they’ve done before.