Bruins Need to Focus on Schedule Ahead
Zdeno Chara’s injury hurts the Bruins the most this season so far.
Chara tore his PCL and will be out at minimum 4 to 6 weeks. Yes, it’s true, Bruins players, management and fans alike are definitely missing his 6-9, 255-pound presence, whether it be in front of the net serving as a screen on a powerplay, or ripping his league-leading 108.8 MPH slapshot from the point. It seems like this could spell the end for a Bruins season that had some promise of a return of Lord Stanley’s Cup.
But when you take a closer look at it, this isn’t the worst time this season for Chara to be sidelined. The Bruins have an fortunate schedule that they have to take advantage of if they want to remain in playoff contention when Chara comes back to the ice.
Let’s start with a team the Bruins have already beaten without their big captain, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto’s problem this season is one that isn’t unfamiliar, but continues to plague this team season after season. They do have a core group of players, former Bruin Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, and Jonathan Bernier to name a few, but they lack a true team identity, a Maple Leaf way. In one of Boston’s first games without Chara, they took it to the Maple Leafs, winning 4-1 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. After the game, the Toronto Sun quoted head coach Randy Carlyle as saying “it looked like we didn’t have a game plan in place when you have people going all over the place…we’re chasing the game and we’ve had too many of these games.’’
There doesn’t seem to be any individual onus to put on anyone for Toronto’s worries, but someone who seems to be taking a lot of criticism right now is Nazem Kadri. Kadri was drafted 7th overall by the Maple Leafs in the 2009 Draft, and was hoped to be a constant force on offense. Through his first eight games, he has only had two assists, and when asked about what could be the problem, the Sun again quoted Kadri as to having said “[the Leafs have to] start caring more.’’
On any other team, this statement wouldn’t be too much cause for criticism, but in Kadri’s case, it’s his lack of ability to take responsibility for his own poor play. We need to play better, not I need to play better. Nonetheless, he was promoted to the top line with Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk, where he, yet again, didn’t produce. Is it because he didn’t take responsibility for his own poor play? Maybe. Boston has a great chance to snag another two points from a team who doesn’t know who they are yet.
Another easy game, and yes, I can call this game easy, is November 15th at TD Garden against the Carolina Hurricanes. There, statistically, is not a worse goaltending tandem in the NHL than Cam Ward and Anton Khudobin up to this point. Both winless, both with save percentages under .900, and each with a tremendously high GAA, Khudobin at 3.24 and Ward at 4.24.
Maybe the offense could step up and take some pressure off of these goalies? Think again, as without captain Eric Staal up to this point, they’ve attempted the second least amount of shots per game in the league, at 24.4. When Staal puts up 61 points in 79 games, the point production is obviously missed. No team can be overlooked, but it’s not hard to say this is the easiest of chances for the Bruins to have a decisive win.
The Bruins then travel to Columbus on November 21st to take on a Blue Jackets team that absolutely has some potential. Why bring up this game then? The injury bug has hit Columbus hard and takes away two big pieces of their offense. Brandon Dubinsky was acquired by Columbus in a move that sent the then franchise lynchpin Rick Nash to the New York Rangers, and since has been a core part of the Jackets forward corps. He scored 16 goals and 34 assists during the 2013-14 season and helped Columbus make the playoffs for only the second time in the team’s 13 year history. However, he had abdominal surgery at the very beginning of the season that will sideline him for six weeks, so either he will still be on injured reserve or shaking off the offseason and surgery rust in one of the first games of his season.
Nick Foligno signed with the Blue Jackets during the 2012 offseason after playing his first two full seasons with the Ottawa Senators, and was really coming into form. 39 points in 70 games last season, over half a point a game, he was doubling his pace at the start of this season, nine points in eight games. However, he suffered a freak accident, as his head and neck were crushed in an awkward hit with one of the linesman along the boards in a game against the Los Angeles Kings. There hasn’t been any word on his condition, which appears ominous for his future during this season.
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t put up terrible numbers, 4-4-0 with a 2.81 GAA and a .908 save percentage, but he did win the 2013 Vezina Trophy for best goaltender in the league, so there were hopes he could put up better than average numbers. Again, it’s not a game to overlook at all, but it’s a chance for the Bruins to exert some offensive might without too much pushback from their opposition.
In their last game in November, the Winnipeg Jets fly to Boston, which in recent years is a good thing for the Bruins. Winnipeg starting goaltender Ondrej Pavelec has looked very vulnerable on TD Garden ice, posting a 0-3-1 record in Boston over the last three seasons, with an average .907 save percentage and a 2.99 goals against average.
When talking about this season, Winnipeg’s struggles come because of a tremendous lack of offense. Even though they attempt 31 shots per game, 11th ranked in the league, they’re only scoring 2.11 goals per game, fourth worst in the NHL. Dustin Byfuglien, who was one of the Jets top point scorers over the past three seasons as a defenseman, was converted to a forward in hopes to bring even more of a scoring touch to a team that needed some offensive depth. He’s only scored three points in nine games, his production not matching what it was when he was patrolling the blue line.
Is it only his fault that the offense isn’t producing? No, not at all, as there are third and fourth line forwards like Mark Scheifele and TJ Galiardi, who were hoped to be scoring at a more consistent rate, that are not making the score sheet, and an injury to top line forward Evander Kane, a knee injury he suffered opening night against Arizona, kept a consistent 30 point scorer off the ice until October 30th. If Pavelec’s play in Boston remains consistent to previous seasons, the Bruins can hopefully end their less competitive slate on a high note.
The collective group that makes up the Bruins blue line is going to have to step up tremendously in this period of time, that’s for sure. Not one single defenseman is going to make up for the play of Zdeno Chara, as Pierre LeBrun quipped when I asked him if Dougie Hamilton could be the answer to losing Chara “Nobody replaces Chara. Nobody.’’
Even still, Hamilton, who comes as the second piece of the Phil Kessel trade to Toronto, the first piece being Tyler Seguin, seems poised to break out and be a shining star on the top line. He had a goal and two assists against the Maple Leafs back on October 25th, and an assist on the game winning overtime goal against the Buffalo Sabres.
Torey Krug will be out for two to three weeks with a broken finger, and would have been hoped to jump in as more of a powerplay quarterback, but the forward corps seem to be handling the job well enough.
Prospects like Zach Trotman and David Warsovsky are being called up from Providence to fill those key depth roles on the third defense line that are being opened by moving guys like Matt Bartkowski and Adam McQuaid up in the lineup.
Veteran Dennis Seidenberg needs to improve his play beyond any shadow of a doubt, only putting up one assist and 12 PIMs in his 11 games started this season.
Now optimally, at the end of November is when I hope Chara would return. Starting in the first week of December, the Bruins take a road trip to the West coast, where they play Western Conference powerhouses Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.
If the four to six week prediction for Big Z to return is correct, this road trip would hit just before the six week mark. Yes, he definitely will have some rust, but his raw ability to play would do nothing but help Boston during what are arguably their toughest games of the season. But even if Chara isn’t healthy enough to return and even if the Bruins take none of these games in some horror movie scenario, their schedule up until then is a big chance to get points and keep themselves in the playoff standings.
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