I think there was a lot to take away from Boston’s 2-0 victory over St. Louis on Tuesday.
For one, Tuukka Rask turned in his best performance of the season, stopping all 33 shots his way, including a 15-shot barrage in the third period. The Bruins capitalized on the few mistakes the Blues made. And most of all, they proved that they could hang with one of the league’s elite squads, something that rightfully came into question after a two-game drubbing in Canada that saw the Bruins outscored by a combined 11-to-2 figure.
But all that was seemingly tossed out the window with the word that Adam McQuaid, who left the game in the second period, will miss the next six to eight weeks with a broken thumb.
At this point, the Bruins’ defense corp has become the plot to a horror movie in the sense that the longer this goes, the more people dropping. The Bruins are still without Zdeno Chara, out since Oct. 23 with a knee injury. Kevan Miller, who dislocated his shoulder in a fight back on Oct. 18, was just cleared to resume playing about two days ago. Torey Krug’s gruesome broken finger isn’t at 100 percent just yet, David Warsofsky has a groin injury, and now McQuaid’s out.
And at the worst possible time, too.
Given the injury situation to Chara (and Miller, to a lesser degree), the 6-foot-5 McQuaid had been asked to supply the Black and Gold with more of a stabilizing presence on the middle pairing and penalty kill. Without Chara, McQuaid is the biggest defender back there. The most physical, as well. On top of his stature, it was pretty obvious that McQuaid was playing his best hockey of the season right up until this injury.
Averaging 19:24 of time on ice per game -- the highest of the 28-year-old’s career by over three minutes -- McQuaid successfully shook off a bumpy start to the season and began contributing to the club’s top four when they needed it most. Logging some hard minutes with rookie Joe Morrow, McQuaid’s game was stronger (from a positioning standpoint) and it didn’t look like he was trying to do everything.
Simplified, is the best word I could really use when it came to assessing his game with Morrow.
But for the 11th time since signing a three-year extension in 2011, McQuaid will be shelved with an injury.
McQuaid missed a total of 14 games (seven regular season, seven playoff) in 2011-12. He sat out 11 games in the lockout-shortened 2013 season with a shoulder injury. And last year, McQuaid missed eight games with a groin injury, another nine with a lower-body injury, and then the final 34 of the regular season and all 12 postseason contests with the same. So maybe a 2014-15 injury was an unfortunate inevitable.
The injury throws Miller back into the fire of hard minutes after missing the last 13 games. But while Claude Julien is certainly a fan of what Miller brings to the club, I don’t think he’s crazy enough to throw Miller right into top-four minutes. This puts the pressure on Matt Bartkowski, who’s put forth back-to-back strong showings, to step up in the absence of two of Boston’s more physical defensemen.
And that’s honestly not a bad thing.Bartkowski, the Bruins’ healthy scratch for much of this season, started the year on a dreadful note. But two games back into the rotation have given the club a glimpse of what the 26-year-old blue-liner can provide when playing with the poise the B’s have come to expect.
“His play just wasn’t up to par and certainly wasn’t a good asset for us. So, we sat him out but we still worked with him and he kept a good attitude and kept working at things during practice,… Julien admitted. “When he got his chance he looked like a guy that was ready and I thought he was pretty good against Carolina, and no doubt he was even better [on Tuesday]. So that was a strong performance on his part. So it was encouraging to see Bart [Bartkowski] get back to how we know he can be.
“When his confidence is down you can see him not sure about moving the puck and a little hesitant with going or not going – that’s a confidence thing. The more you go, and that’s what we talked about when we took him out, we said right now he’s his worst enemy,… Julien continued. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back and you work with him and you try and rebuild his confidence and you work so hard at rebuilding it. Eventually, you get your shot and you take advantage of it. That’s what he’s done.…
Finishing Tuesday’s win with one assist and a plus-2 rating in 20:52 of time on ice, the work has just begun for the Pittsburgh, Penn. native, as his next job becomes stringing these sort of efforts together.
“Just playing my game so I’m as confident as I can be. It’s big,… Bartkowski said on Tuesday night. “We got injuries on the back end. Somebody’s got to step up so I’m just happy I’m playing my game.
“It’s just good to see your hard work rewarded. That’s all you can ask for.…
It was in Dec. last year when a season-ending knee injury to Dennis Seidenberg threw Bartkowski into the mix as a makeshift top-four defender, and there were obvious bumps. But then there were glimpses of unique decision-making skills at both ends of the rink. It’s been more of the latter in Bartkowski’s return to the ice, and that’s a huge reason why the Bruins were OK with trading Johnny Boychuk out of town back in September in the first place. They think Bartkowski can contribute, and that his talent within can’t be stopped by a little adversity. Or a lot, given the fans’ expectations post-Boychuk trade.
“It’s just something you have to prepare for and that’s why you work hard in practice, and if you’re not playing, work hard in the weight room,… Bartkowski said of sliding back into the mix after sitting out for so long. “There are times, well I can’t really say the word I want to say right now. There’s just times where it gets tough, but it’s something you have to battle through.…
Bartkowski’s not out of the woods just yet, again, as he’ll have to prove himself capable of skating with this sort of swagger (the Bartkowski of a month ago would have never had made that excellent diving poke check on Tuesday) on a night-in, night-out basis for the Bruins. The Bruins are prepared for any difficulties No. 43 could go through, too, with Zach Trotman called back up to the big club on Thursday afternoon.