The Boston Bruins entered training camp without an ideal amount of experienced defensemen capable of playing against tough competition with difficult zone starts.
This problem grew Wednesday with the announcement that veteran defenseman Dennis Seidenberg will have back surgery with an expected recovery time of eight weeks.
Seidenberg has struggled since returning from a major knee surgery in 2014. He played all 82 games last season, but he didn’t make much of an impact offensively (14 points) and he failed to drive puck possession. His Corsi Rel at even strength was minus-5.84, which means the Bruins gave up nearly six percent more even-strength shot attempts when Seidenberg was on the ice compared to when he wasn’t. No other Bruins defensemen was worse than minus-3.09.
The 34-year-old D-man, did, however, take on tough defensive assignments, both at 5-on-5 and the penalty kill. He led all B’s defensemen in shorthanded ice time last season, and per the War on Ice table below, he started more of his even-strength shifts in the defensive zone than any Bruins blueliner.
Seidenberg’s Corsi Rel QoC, one metric that measures the quality of competition a player faced, was the third-highest of any B’s defenseman who played 30-plus games last season, per Behind the Net. It was more than double the rating of the fourth-highest, Adam McQuaid.
What does this mean?
Seidenberg’s absence means that some players, specifically the younger, less experienced defensemen such as Kevan Miller, Colin Miller, Joe Morrow and Matt Irwin, could play more minutes against opponents’ top-six forwards than expected, a situation they might not be ready for or aren’t talented enough to handle.
That’s not to say the aforementioned defensemen won’t succeed in tougher defensive assignments. Dougie Hamilton took on the challenge last season as Zdeno Chara’s partner on the first pairing and enjoyed a fantastic season. It’s just not ideal to throw young defensemen into the fire like that.
This season, Krug likely will be the guy who makes the jump to a dependable top-four defenseman at both ends of the ice. He’s talked about proving himself in this role, and now with Seidenberg gone for two months, Krug’s ability to improve defensively while maintaining his impressive scoring production during 5-on-5 and the power play will be critical to the blue line’s overall success in 2015-16.
Irwin and Colin Miller are two other defenseman capable of taking on more challenging defensive duties. Both have played well this preseason, too.
The Bruins still have an elite goaltender in Tuukka Rask capable of bailing out his teammates’ mistakes and stealing games when the offense fails to produce. That said, for the Bruins to finish in the top 10 in goals against once again, they need their young defensemen to step up and play well against better competition.
The Seidenberg injury will allow the Bruins to see who’s ready for that challenge.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
