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New York defenseman
Johnny Boychuk has played in 327 games at the NHL level.
He’s played in the West, and he’s played in the East. He’s skated against the Buffalo Sabres a career-high 23 times. In his eight-year career, the 30-year-old Boychuk has played against 29 of the league’s 30 teams. Tonight, he’ll make it 30, as he returns to the TD Garden to face off against the Bruins, a team he called his own from 2008 to 2014 in a city he called home, won a Cup, and carved out a career as a legitimate top-four NHL defender.
“It’s going to be a bit weird, you’re used to practicing against [the Bruins] and being around them all the time and now you’re playing against them,” Boychuk said after the Islanders’ morning skate at the Garden. “It’s just different even sitting on the bench and being on the other side. It’s different."
A mainstay on Boston’s blue line, and a frequent pairing partner for B’s captain
Zdeno Chara, Boychuk has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success on the Isles’ top pairing through six games.
Boychuk’s six points tie him for third among NHL defensemen in scoring, and his five power-play points are tops in the league (tied with three other defenders). Though it’s nearly certain that the Bruins would not get that sort of offensive production from Boychuk (they almost never, ever used him on the power play), I don’t think there’s a doubt that this team has missed his presence in all areas of the game this year.
A $3.3 million cap casualty, Boychuk’s departure, which came extremely late into camp, has without question hurt Boston’s ability to put together a solidified six on a nightly basis within their defensive structure. You’ve seen
Adam McQuaid,
Matt Bartkowski, and most recently
Torey Krug rotated into the mix on the club’s middle pairing in an effort to curb the loss of No. 55. The injury to
Kevan Miller (dislocated shoulder) has only complicated this issue further, and made the B’s a lot thinner that most would like. In fact, they’re in the same situation they were last trade deadline, if not a worse one.
But the Bruins know they can’t dwell on the trade as they continue to climb out of an early season hole.
“There’s no doubt we miss him because of what he was in the room, on the ice and everything that he brought. But at the same time, we’re comfortable with the group we have now on the fence,”
Claude Julien said of Boychuk earlier today. “Those are things that we have to face sometimes as a team that’s up at the cap. You have to make those hard decisions, so there’s no doubt that the first game back for him is going to be special and first game for us seeing him on the other side is certainly going to be different. But at the end of the day we have a job to do and hopefully he’s thinking the same way from his end of it.”
There’s more to the Islanders than Boychuk, though. Captain and top-line center
John Tavares has started the year at an unbelievable MVP-like scoring pace on the Isles’ first line alongside
Kyle Okposo. The club finally boasts a complete lineup deep with capable centermen, and their defense has been a pleasant surprise. That defense is only getting better, too, as
Lubomir Visnovsky has been activated from the injured reserve (back) and will make his season debut for the Isles tonight.
The 38-year-old defenseman scored three goals and 11 points in 24 games for the club last year, and comes into play with an impressive four goals and 10 points in 14 career games against the Bruins.
The Masked Men: Chad Johnson vs. Niklas Svedberg
While all the hype will be about Boychuk’s return to the Hub, tonight will also serve as
Chad Johnson’s first time back at the Garden and facing off against his former club since leaving the team via free agency this summer. The 28-year-old Johnson stopped 21-of-24 shots in his only start of the season (a 4-3 victory over the Hurricanes on Oct. 11), and will look to put an end the Isles’ two-game slide. He also comes into this one with terrific figures on Garden ice, holding a lethal .944 save percentage and eight wins in nine career games on Boston ice. This will be Johnson’s first career start against the Black and Gold.
The Bruins counter with Johnson’s heir apparent,
Niklas Svedberg. Stopping all 32 Buffalo shots faced last Saturday, enough for the Swede’s first career shutout, Svedberg will certainly have a bigger task when it comes to tonight’s contest against an Islander offense that’s scored the fourth-most goals in the league through two weeks plus. But Svedberg’s NHL sample is still strong, with the 6-foot-2 netminder coming into tonight’s game with 95-of-99 shots saved in four NHL games (a .960 save percentage).
Stats of Note
Loui Eriksson has five goals and seven points in seven career games versus New York.
B’s defenseman
Torey Krug has two goals and five points in his last three games.
Milan Lucic is still looking for his first goal of the season.
NY’s
Brock Nelson has three goals and six points in three road games this season.
Josh Bailey has five goals in 19 career games against the Bruins.
News and Notes
Expect
Matt Fraser to be in a suit on level nine as the team’s healthy scratch.
Miller is still out, as well.
The New York Islanders will be without the service of defenseman
Travis Hamonic. New York coach
Jack Capuano said that Hamonic’s injury is an upper-body one, and that he’s day-to-day. The club also recalled forward
Anders Lee, and waived
Colin McDonald yesterday afternoon.
It was less than two years ago when the Boston Bruins had to postpone a Marathon Monday night game against the Ottawa Senators because of a tragedy that rocked their city. Yesterday, the Senators were on the home side of that, as a tragic shooting rightfully put hockey in the back seat. And like this sport has done so many times, the league rallied around Ottawa like they did for Boston in 2013, something not lost on the B’s.
“Every city rallies around its own city and I’ve talked to a few people including my family that’s still back. My parents and brothers and sisters it’s affected them even if they weren’t around that area it affected them. It affects the whole city like the bombing affected us here,” Julien said today. “They’ll have to get used to it in a way where that’s reality, unfortunately, and it’s happening. Again, Ottawa is a pretty—or Canada is a pretty laid back country that tries to continue to be laid back. But it’s also a country that supported the U.S. in some of its decision and more than likely those are the consequences that it faces because of that.”
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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