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Boston captain Zdeno Chara was in rough shape after taking a puck off the foot in the B’s shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday. The 6-foot-9 defender was visibly bothered, and grimaced his way off the ice and onto the bench. The alarms went crazy, of course.
It’s tough to picture how the Bruins, who have been pedestrian at best on the blue line when you look at this year as a whole, could be anything even close to competitive this time of year without Chara. But Chara returned to Saturday’s contest, and though he missed Monday’s practice, the 38-year-old is a definite go for the Bruins’ season-ending, three-game road swing through D.C. and Florida.
Given the Eastern Conference happenings on Tuesday night -- the Sens won in overtime, the Red Wings won in regulation, and the Penguins gained a point in the aforementioned Sens OT win -- the Bruins need their captain to perform at an elite for this final 180 minutes of hockey or it’ll be just that.
As of right now, the Black and Gold are still relatively in control of their own destiny. Their 95 points are enough for the second wild card in the East by virtue of having one less game played than the ninth-place Sens, who are also at 95 points. But they still need to find ways to earn points.
And that begins with the play of their defense. Without Dougie Hamilton (undisclosed) for this road trip, this is it for final say for the B’s blue line. Their six -- Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Matt Bartkowski, Torey Krug, Adam McQuaid, and Zach Trotman -- are their six. (Joe Morrow, an emergency callup numerous times this season, could be an option if someone goes down, too.)
The simple question then becomes, is that sixsome going to be enough to get the job done on the road?
Honestly, I think so, but it’s still a huge test that has more questions than answers at this point. You’ve seen the troubles of the Bartkowski-McQuaid at various points when they’re put together. There’s just a slightly missing gear of sorts when it comes to their decision making with both the puck and picking up their assignments as a two-man unit. And the Krug-Seidenberg pairing just seems really odd at times (I’m not sure how else to put it, to be honest). But let’s look at the big pairing in question here: the Bruins’ makeshift top-pairing of Chara (who could very well be skating at less than 100%) and Trotman.
Although B’s head coach has maintained the belief that he’s ‘mixing and matching’ his defensive pairings right now, Julien has trusted Chara-Trotman for the majority of these contests, and the 6-foot-3 defender has rewarded the coach for that decision, recording a goal (a game-winner), a plus-1 rating, and 14 hits in seven games since Hamilton went down. It’s an undeniably small sample in terms of the top-four minutes he’s logged, but Trotman’s provided an efficient complement to Chara, and hasn’t necessarily been completely sheltered like some of the club’s prior minor-league callups.
But away from TD Garden, and with the B’s set for road matchups against names like Alex Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr, and maybe even Steven Stamkos (that could come back to Tampa’s seeding and whether or not they’re resting guys for the last game of the regular season, but even without Stamkos the Bolts still present a number of challenges on their home ice), Trotman will have to step up even more.
It’s that need for the ‘extra gear’ that the B’s will undoubtedly ask of the Indiana-born Trotman, and one that’ll tell everyone just what the club has in the 24-year-old defender. While Trotman has a mild 24-game sample size this year, his 52.6 CF% is fourth-best among Boston defensemen with at least 20 games played (Hamilton, Chara and Krug have posted betters numbers there), and he’s third among Boston defenders in dCorsi Impact this year behind Chara and Hamilton. He’s been solid. And more.
But why is he the key? Well, simply put, Hamilton’s status is a real unknown.
It was the Boston Celtics’ Kelly Olynyk that broke the news that Hamilton was suffering from broken ribs (that’s such a weird sentence no matter how many times I write it out), and while Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said that Olynyk’s report was not ‘entirely accurate’, he added that he hoped for Hamilton to return before the end of the regular season. But No. 27’s not even on this trip.
I shouldn’t have to, but just in case you need me to tell you-- That’s no good.
If Hamilton’s unable to go in time for the postseason (if the Bruins get there) -- while the general belief is that Hamilton, whether this is a rib ailment or some sort of arm/shoulder injury -- it’s on Trotman to log the heavier top-four minutes that come as a lower seed starting on the road.
And is there a better test to see how ‘ready’ Trotman is for that role -- full-time or for even just one playoff game -- than a three-game swing with matchups against an Ovechkin, a Jagr, and a Stamkos?
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