Dennis Seidenberg

WILMINGTON — The Bruins stayed off the ice Thursday at Ristuccia Arena, with Dennis Seidenberg not skating as he works his way back from a lower-body injury. It’s common for dinged-up players to go out on their own even when the team isn’t practicing, but Claude Julien insisted that the veteran defenseman was simply getting the day off with the rest of his teammates.

“Seidenberg didn’t skate today because nobody did. Otherwise, he would have been on the ice with everybody else,” Julien said. “Again, he’s been a day-to-day situation. That hasn’t changed. If he’s practicing, you know he’s that close to it. A lot of it at this time of year is about us making the right decision for the long haul vs. the short term.”

Seidenberg, who has missed the last two games with the unspecified injury, told the Boston Herald’s Steve Harris that it is not a groin injury. Asked specifically what the injury was, Seidenberg simply grinned and said, “I think it’s called lower-body, isn’t it?”

The 31-year-old practiced with the B’s on Tuesday after missing Monday’s game, but was once again held out of the lineup in Wednesday’s overtime loss against the Rangers. He said Thursday that the injury isn’t severe and that the team is just playing it safe.

“If it were the playoffs — the games are all big — but if it were the playoffs I probably could play,” he said, “but just looking at the schedule with so many games coming up, you just want to be smart about it and don’t force it.”

Seidenberg said that the injury was suffered in the team’s season-opener against the Rangers, but thathe feels good with another day of rest and that he hopes to play Friday against the Islanders.

Said Seidenberg: “We’ll see tomorrow how it feels in pre-game skate, and after that we’ll make the decision.”

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