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In case you had any doubts that things could somehow get worse the 2014-15 Boston Bruins, Brett Connolly, the club’s big get on Monday’s trade deadline, will miss the next six weeks with a displaced fracture in his right index finger. The fracture occurred on a Dennis Seidenberg shot the 6-foot-2 winger took off his hand, and came in just his second practice with the Black and Gold, spent on a skillful line with Loui Eriksson and Carl Soderberg.
So, I guess things sure could (and did get) worse.
Based on everything that's happened this season, this, well, sounds about right.
The 22-year-old arrived to Boston with 12 goals (with two of those 12 coming on the power play) and 15 points in 50 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, and was expected to bring the right-shot offensive boost the B’s have longed for on their top-nine all season long.
But the expected six-week absence likely puts Connolly out for the remainder of the regular season, and creates a situation where the Black and Gold may not even get to see what No. 14 can bring this year.
If the Bruins make the postseason, it will have to happen with a certain line or combination -- or dare I say the unthinkable, the entire team -- catching fire down the stretch run. That would make it hard for Connolly, with just two practices with the B’s, to break back into the lineup without unrealistic expectations or an extremely short leash given both the importance of postseason contests and Connolly’s inexperience with his teammates and Claude Julien’s system.
In the now, with the exception of fellow deadline acquisition Max Talbot and subtraction of fourth-liner Jordan Caron, the B’s are the same they were before the trade deadline.
This will probably put Danny Paille back with Eriksson and Soderberg, while Brian Ferlin will serve as a winger on the fourth line with Talbot and Chris Kelly.
That won’t exactly come close to taking away the sting that comes with the Bruins more than likely failing to get a healthy single regular season game out of Connolly, a player they clearly saw as one of the answers to their goal-scoring woes, before they’re due to deliver him a new contract this summer.
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