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In a year ripe with changes to their defensive system and personnel, the Boston Bruins felt that they had a reliable standby in top-four defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Unfortunately for Claude Julien and the B’s, that won’t be the case for the foreseeable future, as the German defenseman will undergo a back surgery expected to keep him out of action for the next two months.
Scheduled to undergo a lumbar microdiscectomy on Thursday, September 24 to repair a lumbar spine disc herniation, a surgery that will be performed by Dr. Louis Jenis at Massachusetts General Hospital, the injury flared up for Seidenberg before No. 44 even hit the ice with his teammates.
“He was just training and came in a previous Monday and said that he had some symptoms,… B’s general manager Don Sweeney said of the injury. “Our guys jumped right on it to see where it was coming from, identified it, hoped it had calmed down but they went through further testing yesterday and they concluded that they would like to move forward with a microdiscectomy.
“I think it was nerve aggravation. It really wasn’t a pain situation, just that [that] nerve was bothering him and again, didn’t get arguably any worse just sort of was persisting and the surgeons, our doctors and medical staff decided this was the best course of action.…
One of just two Bruins skaters to suit up for the full 82-game slate last season, the loss of Seidenberg is an undeniably big one. Especially after the slow start that came with Seidenberg’s rebound from a torn ACL/MCL in Dec. 2013 that looked to hamper his game for the first half of this past season.
“I had high expectations with how he would fit into our group. I mean players do take, in any sport, take a long time to recover from an ACL you know. The way Dennis is built to get back and do things as hard as he can, it’s no surprise he was able to play in a few games last year, despite coming off the surgery,… Sweeney said. “I think he felt good about where his training was overall and he was excited about the year as we were, with how he was going to fit into our group. So again it’s a void that internally we’re trying to assess and as I’ve always said, to be consistent I’ll continue to talk to other teams and people that may or may not be available to see if we need to fill that void.…
Internally, few are built to do what Seidenberg does. He eats minutes at even-strength and on the penalty kill, he blocks everything thrown at the net, and hits everything that moves. Although a left shot, Seidenberg is adept at playing both the left and right side, and was likely to play the right side opposite a Torey Krug or Matt Irwin on the Bruins’ second pairing.
Off the bat, the easiest and most likely fit, is a promotion for Adam McQuaid.
A 6-foot-5 defender with a knack for the physical side of things, McQuaid spent much of his 2014-15 campaign auditioning for top-four roles on both the first and second pairings, and although that brought little success to No. 54’s game, a reunion with usual third-pairing partner (Krug) on the second pair could bring the best out of McQuaid’s game. Having Krug to his left has ultimately been where McQuaid has found the most success over the last two years, as both players’ styles complement one another in an extremely effective way. Of course, the two would face tougher competition as the second pairing than they have as the third pairing, but with both players earning raises this past season, perhaps that’s just the natural next step that Sweeney and the B’s want to see these guys take.
Beyond McQuaid, the Bruins have secondary options in Irwin (who’s said that he can also play both sides like Seidenberg has), Kevan Miller, Colin Miller, and Joe Morrow. No matter the fill-in, this is going to be a big injury for the B’s -- already short on defensemen with significant NHL experience to their names -- to overcome. While the start was slow, Seidenberg actually finished the year as one of Boston’s better blueliners and looked to be back to himself. Imagining No. 44 essentially starting over back to where he was at this time last year, and the lengthy process that was getting him back to an acceptable level as a top-four defender, is going to be a tough ride if the case.
But Sweeney, a general manager openly big on the development of the pipeline, seems ready.
“We’ve felt we’ve had very good depth, albeit some of it inexperienced but now they’re getting an opportunity,… Sweeney noted of his defense corps. “Hopefully they can take advantage of it.…
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