Marco Sturm gets shockingly honest about David Pastrnak injury

David Pastrnak is missing the start of Bruins training camp with a mysterious case of tendinitis. Don Sweeney didn't get into any specifics beyond that. It could've been anywhere on his body.

Turns out all we needed to do was ask Marco Sturm.

The Bruins head coach directly addressed Pastrnak's tendinitis issue when he spoke to the media after practice Thursday, on the first day of camp at Warrior Ice Arena. It took 98.5 The Sports Hub's own producer, Marc Cappello, asking about the injury to get to the bottom of it. Is it upper-body, lower-body?

"Yeah, that's on his knee. I can say that -- hopefully, right?" Sturm said, checking with Bruins staffers. "You guys saw him around last week, too. He could've skated today too, tomorrow, whatever it is. He had something, I don't really know if it's in the past or something minor.

"We just want to be careful, that's all. That's why I'm not worried at all. He's knocking on my door already every day, he wants to skate, and we just have to pull him back a little bit. We just want to make sure he's going to be ready to go next week."

Well if that isn't a violent swerve from what we're used to hearing when it comes to injuries in the NHL.

Sturm may be told after that press conference that he really doesn't have to specify the body part. He could've just said "lower-body" instead of specifying the knee. But it's not like Pastrnak would be at risk of his own teammates targeting his knee in training camp when he gets back on the ice.

The head coach certainly doesn't seem concerned that by far his best player's knee is barking. It remains something to monitor in the coming days. And it's refreshing to hear a team be so transparent about an injury situation.

For now, Viktor Arvidsson appears to be taking Pastrnak's spot at right wing alongside Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm in practice.