by Fluto Shinzawa Globe Staff , The Boston Globe

While the surgery is to repair a torn meniscus, Chiarelli said there's a good chance Sturm's anterior cruciate ligament will also require attention. Sturm, who injured his knee Dec. 18 against Toronto, is expected to miss the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

It was a rotten 2008-09 for Sturm, who was mentioned by vice president Cam Neely as a candidate to score 40 goals because of his speed and skill. The alternate captain was knocked out earlier this season for 12 games with head and neck woes - he originally suffered the injury Nov. 12 against Chicago - that produced concussion-like symptoms.

After his 12-game absence, Sturm returned to his old spot on the No. 2 line alongside Patrice Bergeron Dec. 18, scoring on his first shift. Later in the first period, while killing a penalty, Sturm was checked by forward Nikolai Kulemin into the boards, causing the knee injury.

Sturm, a top-six forward who was on the first power-play unit and a regular penalty killer, totaled seven goals and six assists in 19 games this season. This will be the first major surgery of his NHL career.

Chiarelli said he will first look internally to replace Sturm's production, then consider an acquisition if in-house help proves inadequate.

Sturm is on long-term injured reserve, meaning the Bruins could replace the remainder of his $3.5 million annual salary cap hit.

"Right now," said Chiarelli, "I'm not actively pursuing anybody."

Lucic, Ference still out

Milan Lucic, felled by an undisclosed injury Tuesday in a 1-0 loss to Minnesota, will miss his second straight game today against Carolina. Lucic didn't practice yesterday and sat out Thursday's 6-4 win over Ottawa.

"We're talking about a few days here," coach Claude Julien said. "We'll go from there."

Andrew Ference (tibia), once projected to be available this week, will miss his 25th straight game. Ference has not skated since Monday, when he pulled out of practice early.

"We had to pull him back just a little bit there," said Julien. "It's nothing serious. No concerns. Just going back to the original schedule and sticking with that one."

Shane Hnidy (eye) practiced yesterday but is doubtful for today. Hnidy, who suffered an injury to the same eye six years ago while playing for Ottawa, was struck by a deflected shot by Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck Tuesday. He didn't play Thursday.

Back to AHL

Vladimir Sobotka and Martin St. Pierre were assigned to Providence, leaving the Bruins with 10 healthy forwards. The team will recall two other forwards from Providence today, with Martins Karsums one of the candidates. Karsums was brought up Thursday on emergency recall but returned to Providence. Sobotka and St. Pierre were both minus-2 Thursday ... Lucic and Blake Wheeler were named to the YoungStars Game, which will be held Jan. 24 at Bell Centre in Montreal. For the first time, the game will pit rookies against sophomores. Not included were rookie Matt Hunwick and second-year NHLer David Krejci ... Julien on the Hurricanes, who gave his club a good fight Dec. 27 when the Bruins scored a 4-2 road win: "They compete hard. Big time. That's one thing we're going to see here in the next few games coming up. We've got some teams that are starting to find their groove and will be good challenges for us." Carolina coach Paul Maurice was pleased with his team's last performance against the Bruins. "I thought the game in Raleigh, we were pretty darn good," Maurice said. "Played well with a lot of good jump. But what I think Claude's done so well is he's matched his skilled players with his physical players and gotten them all to play the same style of game, same effort and speed. I thought we did that in Raleigh. We had all our players playing the same style of game."

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