BOSTON — While Patrice Bergeron and David Backes may be close to returning, the injury problems for the Boston Bruins continued to mount Wednesday.

Goaltender Tuukka Rask needed to be helped off the ice after forward Anders Bjork crashed into him during a drill in Wednesday’s practice, and did not return.

Speaking after the practice, Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy had no immediate update on the 30-year-old netminder’s condition.

“He left early, obviously,” Cassidy said. “We had a line-rush drill where there was some contact around the net. He’ll get evaluated. I’ve got nothing right now. Hopefully he’s fine.”

“I just kind of ran into Tuukka there,” Bjork said after practice. “We were doing 3-on-2s, so it was kind of fast play, don’t really know what happened. There were a lot of bodies around there. It’s really unfortunate that it happened. I hope he’s OK and I wish I would have held up there but the game happens so fast that sometimes it happens before you can think.”

If Rask is unable to start Thursday against the Canucks, the Bruins will turn to Anton Khudobin, who stopped 29 shots in a 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday. If Rask is sidelined for an extended amount of time, Boston is likely to call up Zane McIntyre from Providence.

In four games this season, Rask is 1-3 with a 3.30 goals-against average and an .882 save percentage.

• The Bruins also announced that forward Ryan Spooner sustained a groin injury during the team’s loss at Vegas on Sunday and will be out 4 to 6 weeks.

• In good news for Boston, center Patrice Bergeron skated for most of Tuesday’s session, on the heels of David Backes (diverticulitis), who participated in a full practice earlier in the week.

Bergeron wore a red non-contact jersey but took a few light bumps during 5-on-5 drills, then called it a day before the 3-on-3s. It was the most he’d done since sustaining a lower-body injury in practice two days before the Oct. 5 opener.

“Today was one of those days where I wanted to see where I was at, and we felt we were comfortable with doing drills and being with the team,” Bergeron said. “I didn’t necessarily know what kind of practice that (Coach Bruce Cassidy) had for us, so I went along, felt good, so I kept going.”

While Bergeron has not been ruled out for Thursday’s game, Cassidy indicated that both Backes and defenseman Adam McQuaid were closer to being ready to play. At practice, Bergeron centered a line with Brad Marchand and Bjork.

• Amid the injury woes and a scoring slump, Boston called up its top two AHL wingers in Kenny Agostino and Peter Cehlarik from Providence.

Agostino, who won the AHL MVP Award last season after finishing with 83 points in 65 games with the Chicago Wolves, has seven points in his first three games with the Providence.

Cehlarik has also impressed, posting five points.

FORMER NHL agent Stacey McAlpine has been charged with fraud in a case involving former Ottawa Senators players Dany Heatley and Chris Phillips.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, police said Wednesday that the 54-year-old McAlpine bilked Heatley and Phillips out of $12 million between January 2004 and June 2011.

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

MAPLE LEAFS 6, RED WINGS 3: Curtis McElhinney made 29 saves in his season debut and Toronto scored four times in the first period in a win at home.

Starting in place of Frederik Andersen, McElhinney stopped 14 shots in the third period to hold off the Red Wings.

Nazem Kadri, Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews, Connor Brown, Morgan Rielly and William Nylander scored to help Toronto improve to an NHL-best 6-1.

Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Ericsson scored for the Red Wings, and Nick Jensen had three assists.

Jimmy Howard gave up three goals on four shots before getting yanked from the game in favor of Petr Mrazek late in the first period.

BLUES 5, BLACKHAWKS 2: Jaden Schwartz had his third career hat trick to help host St. Louis beat Chicago.

Schwartz has four goals and six assists this season, and has at least one point in six of the Blues’ first seven games. It was his 51st career multi-point game and fourth this season.