Dougie Hamilton is one of the Bruins defensemen who must play at a high level while Boston is without injured captain Zdeno Chara for the next four to six weeks.
Hamilton’s performance Saturday night was an indication that he’s capable of answering this challenge.
The Ontario native, who attended many Toronto Maple Leafs games as a kid, helped the Bruins defeat his hometown team 4-1 with a three-point effort at the Air Canada Centre.
Hamilton ended Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s night with a beautiful goal at 4:09 of the third period. The 21-year-old showed great speed and stick-handling skill to race past Jake Gardiner and score his second goal of the season. It was one of Hamilton’s four shots on goal, tying his season-high.
Hamilton added two assists, increasing his season total to three. One of his helpers came on Carl Soderberg’s power-play goal that opened the scoring in the first period, and the other assist helped set up David Krejci’s sensational second-period goal.
In addition to his scoring contributions, Hamilton also helped the Bruins control puck possession at even strength. He finished with a 57 Corsi-for percentage (24 shots for, 18 against) during 5-on-5 play. His plus-6 Corsi was the best among Boston’s top-four defensemen. These possession stats are impressive given the fact that he started just 31 percent of his even-strength shifts in the attacking zone.
Hamilton played well defensively, too. He was paired with Dennis Seidenberg on the team’s top pairing, and this duo shut down the highly skilled Leafs first line of James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel. This trio failed to score a goal, totaled just six shots and had a combined even-strength shot differential of minus-4.
Hamilton also made a positive impact on special teams. His excellent playmaking skill created a couple of scoring chances during 3:40 of power-play ice time, and he helped the Bruins go 3-for-3 on the penalty kill with 1:33 of short-handed ice time.
“I thought our whole d-core played really well and probably our best defensive game this year,” Hamilton told reporters postgame. “We kept talking about and focusing on it, and we executed well. So it’s a good feeling.”
Hamilton, like many of his teammates, started the season slowly. He was scoreless in his first six games, but he’s rebounded with five points (two goals, three assists) and 11 shots on goal in his last four contests. The first first-round draft pick also has averaged over 22:00 of ice time per game in that span, and looks comfortable in a more important role.
Even though Hamilton will play top-pairing minutes, feature on both special teams units and defend against the opponent’s top lines in Chara’s absence, he’s won’t be responsible for replacing the captain by himself. It needs to be a collective effort, and that’s what the Bruins gave in Saturday night’s victory.
“No, I don’t think so. It’s everybody having to step up,” Hamilton said when asked if he feels added pressure with Chara sidelined. “Like I said, as a unit we wanted to step up together and I think that’s how you have to it. I don’t think one player can fill (Chara’s) shoes, that’s impossible. So, I thought we did well.”
Photo via Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports Images
