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After 19 painful games on the shelf, it sounds like captain Zdeno Chara is a go for the Boston Bruins.
“Not officially [in], but I’m counting on him,… Boston coach Claude Julien said after today’s morning skate in preparation for a Thursday night battle with the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden.
Injured exactly seven weeks ago in an awkward collision with Islanders’ captain John Tavares, tearing the PCL in his left knee, the 37-year-old has sat out longer than he projected four-to-six week timeframe, but that’s more than OK for a Boston club that’s just happy to have their ‘C’ back. The expected return of Chara, even if he’s less than 100 percent or ‘rusty’, is still better than what the B’s have been icing on most nights, and allows the rest of the mix-and-match blue line to slide into more fitting roles.
Dennis Seidenberg will be allowed to drop back on the Bruins’ second pairing (likely with Kevan Miller), while the B’s can sport a slick-moving third-pairing featuring Torey Krug and Zach Trotman or Joe Morrow. But one guy’s role will remain the same-- Dougie Hamilton.
A strong fit on the Bruins’ top-pairing in Chara’s absence (he’s had a few weaker games, but that’s to be expected as a 21-year-old logging top-two minutes for a contending club), Hamilton’s growth over the last six weeks plus hasn’t made Julien question his decision to give Hamilton those heavy minutes.
“Positives means he’s played a lot more and he’s been asked to play a bigger role. Negative is he probably grows a little quicker playing with a guy like Zee [Zdeno Chara] too,… Julien said when asked of Hamilton’s sans Chara developments this season. “That’s a great partner to have and confidence-wise and everything else. A lot to be taken but he’s done the job. He’s had some good games, some average games but I think we can say that about everybody on the team.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s basically being given a bigger role,… Julien added when pressed about the third-year pro’s responsibilities. “Sometimes you’re careful with that because sometimes it’s early in his career and you don’t want to put too much on his shoulders, but at the same time he’s handled it fairly well.…
In 19 games without Chara, Hamilton has scored four goals and 15 points.
Back in Boston after a four-game road swing that brought the Bruins just one victory, things won’t get any easier with tonight’s visit from a Blackhawks squad that’s won seven straight and nine of their last 10. It’s been a little bit of everything for the ‘Hawks, too, who come into tonight’s game with the league’s best goal differential (plus-33), but it’s the high-end skill of a Kane, a Hossa, a Toews, and countless others that’ll force the Bruins’ defense to roll like a well-oiled machine. Welcome back, Chara.
If there’s one story I’ve really loved this year, it’s that of Chicago netminder Scott Darling.
A former sixth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes, the 25-year-old’s path to the NHL has taken him to his straight-up strange places. Since going pro in 2010, the Illinois-born goalie has played in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, Hamilton, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Rockford, and finally, Chicago. But he’s made it to the NHL, and he’s even had some success, with four wins and a .939 save percentage in five games this season. He’s really the ultimate underdog story, and it’s always great to see those guys have some success. The 6-foot-6 Darling has rattled off three straight wins, too, stopping 82 of 89 shots against.
In the opposite crease, Tuukka Rask gets the start for the Black and Gold. Stopping 24-of-26 in a 5-2 win over Arizona in his last start, the 27-year-old’s return to Boston is a welcomed sight. With nine wins and a .931 save percentage in 13 games at home this year, the B’s will undoubtedly need another huge game from the Finnish netminder if they’re to extend this win streak to, uh, two games. Rask has one win and a .961 save percentage in three regular season games against the Blackhawks in his career.
- Forward Brad Marchand has two goals and four points in four career games against Chicago.
- B’s defender Torey Krug has one goal, one assist, and eight shots in his last two games.
- Four of Patrice Bergeron’s five goals this year have come on Garden ice.
- Patrick Kane has five goals and nine points in 11 games against Eastern Conference opponents this year.
- Duncan Keith has two goals and seven points in his last nine games played.
Other news and notes
With veteran winger Simon Gagne away from the club on an indefinite leave of absence to tend to his ailing father, forward Craig Cunningham will draw back into the Boston lineup as the winger of the Campbell line. Cunningham has 10 hits in three games with Boston this season, and has recorded five goals and 15 points in 21 games for the Providence Bruins (AHL) this season.
And though he’s progressing, it doesn’t sound as if David Krejci will be a go for tonight just yet.
“Nobody’s told me anything yet so unless anybody tells me something after this morning’s skate—I’m not going to count on him and if they tell me he’s ready to go then he’ll be in,… Julien said of Krejci.
On a completely selfish and meaningless note, today is my 23rd birthday. Growing up a bridge away from the then-Fleetcenter, hockey has always been an unbelievable part of my life.
I remember going to a Rangers-Bruins game in (I wanna say in the year 2000) and bringing a sign that said “All I Want for My Birthday is a Jason Allison Goal…. That was a weird birthday request, I know, but Allison scored one that night! They even showed my sign on the jumbotron after it. Growing up, I loved the Bruins, but also loved the Flyers and Blackhawks. With Philly, I loved the Crazy Eights line, and Mark Recchi was one of those guys that I always loved because he was small like me. (Sidenote: I had the hardest time interviewing Recchi, even as an adult.) And with Chicago, between Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte, they seemed to always have big-time Massachusetts guys, and that was always really cool to me. I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday than to cover an Original Six matchup between the ‘Hawks and Bruins, too.
I’ll probably leave the Jason Allison sign at home this time around, though.
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