Following his latest setback, rugged defensemen Adam McQuaid, bothered by a leg injury since Jan. 19, has been ruled out to return to the Boston lineup this weekend.
By way of not joining the B’s on the ice at practice today, the 27-year-old McQuaid is expected to miss Saturday’s game at home against the Washington Capitals along with the Bruins’ Sunday night battle against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Even his coach, Claude Julien, seems clueless when it comes to McQuaid’s rehab process. "Day to day, week to week, month to month--I'm not sure any more," Julien said of McQuaid’s recovery time earlier today.
An 0-for-2 on the weekend will mean that McQuaid, a staple on the club’s third defensive pair, has missed the club’s last 12 contests. It would also mean that McQuaid’s missed 29 of Boston’s 60 games in 2013-14 due to injuries. That’s 48 percent of the year to date. Obviously, that’s fairly concerning.
It’s in all likelihood why the Bruins are reportedly knocking on Ottawa’s door to see if veteran defensemen Chris Phillips would like to come out and play in Boston.
Phillips, an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, is one of those players that’s been linked to the B’s in trade rumors for what’s felt like at least five straight years now. And like most ex-Sens, that comes back to the face of the Boston front office, general manager Peter Chiarelli.
A former Sens executive, Chiarelli, as previously mentioned, is not afraid to take on members of his old roster. Headlined by deadline deals for Chris Kelly and even Wade Redden -- though they were a few degrees of separation before Redden made the jump from Ottawa to Boston -- inquiring about the availability of the 35-year-old Phillips makes all the sense in the world for the B’s.
Five points out of the East’s final wild card spot, imagining a late-season push from Ottawa isn’t out of the realm of possibilities by any means, but their issues seem to run deep. Can their roster, as currently constituted, make a run in the East? It’s tough to give a firm yes or no, but I don’t think so.
And at 35, without a Stanley Cup to his name, and after 16 years with the Senators, it may time for Phillips to explore the greener pastures of the National Hockey League world.
In Boston, Phillips would serve as the mid-tier defensemen that Chiarelli and Co. are longing for, with the 6-foot-3 providing a solid stabilizing presence for Dougie Hamilton or Torey Krug. A role Phillips is familiar with, especially this year, as he’s been paired with rookie blue-liner Cody Ceci for much of the Sens’ topsy turvy campaign.
Though the B’s front office has admitted that there’s nobody out there to replace the loss of Dennis Seidenberg, the other half to Boston’s shutdown playoff pairing featuring the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara, Phillips would give Julien another body he’s comfortable sending out there during a crucial penalty kill.
As we’ve seen from the sans Seidenberg B’s, there are few Bruins you can say that about.
Nobody in Ottawa averages more time on the penalty kill per game than Phillips’ 3:17, and he’s blocked 72 shots and thrown 102 hits in 50 games played this season. To go with those ‘gritty’ figures, Phillips chimed in with a goal and 13 points this season. And he knows that -- regardless of his veteran presence and history in Ottawa -- he could be wearing a different sweater this time next week.
“Nobody thought Gretzky would get traded either, or Ray Bourque, you can go on and on,… Phillips told the Ottawa Sun just a few days ago. “Obviously my life is here. I’ve been here since Day 1 and right now no, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. But I have to be realistic about pro sports and everything that goes on with it, that there’s a possibility that could happen some day.…
Phillips’ contract with Ottawa includes a limited no-trade clause that includes a 10-team list of teams that Phillips won’t go to, comes with a $3.08 million cap-hit, and expires at the end of the year. The Bruins, an aforementioned lover of Ottawa castaways, have now been linked to both Phillips and ex-Senator (and current Philadelphia Flyer) Andrej Meszaros in the past few days.
Hey, anybody know what Brian Pothier is up to these days?
Asking for a friend; The friend is Peter Chiarelli.