WILMINGTON, Mass. – It’s not yet time for the Bruins to make plans in the immediate future for life without both Dennis Seidenberg and Zdeno Chara.
Chara was given the weekend off by Bruins coach Claude Julien, who said the 6-foot-9 defenseman will be reevaluated Monday after getting knocked out of Thursday’s preseason game with an upper body injury.
Seidenberg was spotted smiling while walking around without great discomfort in the Bruins dressing room following Saturday’s practice at Ristuccia Arena, and said he was feeling “good,” all things considered.
Those are both positive signs for the Black and Gold’s back end.
But the Original Six club does need to consider what life will be like at times this season should the 34-year-old Seidenberg and 38-year-old Chara continue to get banged up in the inevitable battle with Father Time.
The question of which player could step up to be the No. 1 defenseman in that scenario is one fraught with uncertainty, and really without a good final answer at this point.
It could be a “top pairing by committee,” and that’s far less than the ideal.
Boston Bruins
But one player that’s looking to at least step up into a top-4 D-man role this season is Torey Krug, who is entering his third full season in Boston.
The 5-foot-9, 191-pound D-man averaged a career-high 19:36 of ice time last season while flirting with top-4 defensemen status, and will need to continue that progression into consistently playing 20-plus minutes per night this season.
Krug’s now the best offensive D-man on the roster, with Dougie Hamilton’s exodus to Calgary, and he’s one of the most experienced guys left behind the aging Chara and Seidenberg.
So the 24-year-old knows it’s his time to step up, and stifle all the doubters that think he’s too small for anything beyond a bottom-pairing/power play specialist role. The tweaks in the Bruins’ system to a more transition-oriented game stressing speed and aggression will dovetail nicely with Krug’s game.
“It’s fun. We’re talking about the movement in the NHL, and the style of defensemen that are starting to come in and play a lot of minutes, and be important within the team. Improving my role within our team and playing bigger minutes against better players? It’s just a lot more fun, and it’s a lot more pure. The way I think the game is similar to those players,” said Krug. “I’d like to be out against those skill players that are trying to make plays for their team. I think it’s just a lot more fun.”
Krug says he still hears the doubters that think he’s too small to consistently handle the kind of physical pounding that comes with a heavy workload on the ice.
“I’ve been hearing it my whole life, and it’s not gonna change,” said Krug, who was second on the Bruins with 40 pull-ups during off-ice testing on the first day of camp. “Even when I do take advantage of this opportunity, it will keep going. Other teams will circle my name on the board and say ‘let’s take advantage of this guy.’ Those are all challenges that fuel my motivation.
“I’ve been able to really use it to this point, and I don’t see any reason why that’s going to change.”
It’s pretty clear given Boston’s roster changes that Krug and Adam McQuaid are being counted on for greater responsibilities this season. That’s also something that the Bruins coaching staff feels Krug is capable of handling after watching his progression last season.
Gone are the days of the common-held hockey belief that a 5-foot-9 D-man can’t survive in the NHL. Claude Julien pointed to a pretty good American-born player that he coached in New Jersey, Brian Rafalski, who never let his stature get in the way of a long, productive All-Star career.
“[It’s about] him not necessarily saying, ‘well, I’m going to win this battle against this 6-foot-6 guy.’ He’s just got to be smart, and all we want for him is to come out with the puck. So even if you’re going to go in the corner and you’re side-to-side, maybe be smarter, let [the other guy] go in first, and maybe take the puck away just before he goes in and go out the other way,” said Claude Julien. “I always use the example of Brian Rafalski, who I coached in New Jersey. He was extremely good at that.
“He was this little player, and you could use him against top lines because he was smart in his D-zone that way. He’d come out with the puck and then go up the ice. So he didn’t have to engage in battles, and that’s what I told Torey because Torey’s from that area [of Michigan]. I’m sure he’s seen him play. I said that if you can be a little more like Brian Rafalski was, you’re going to see a big difference.
“There’s times when he can handle himself, he’s big [and] he’s strong. That’s not to say he’s weak. But it’s hard to compare him to a 6-foot-6 guy that’s going in the corner and he’s 230 pounds. Be smarter, and come out with the puck…that’s all we care about. [It’s the] same thing with forwards, when we talk about physicality: just get in there, get your nose dirty and come out with the puck. If you’re not a hitter, you don’t have to run anybody over. But if you’re smart enough to come out with the puck, you’re not going to hear a complaint from me.”
Like many players around the NHL, Krug is already showing that he’s a consistent performer at the highest levels of hockey. He’s posted an average of 13 goals and 39.5 points in his two full seasons while proving to be remarkably durable for an undersized player.
Everybody knows what Krug can do on the power play, with his howitzer shot, ideal mobility while walking the blue line, and good on-ice vision to find open teammates. He’ll be vital once again on the Bruins man advantage given the eight PP goals and 25 PP points he’s tallied over the last two seasons.
This season is about showing he can make an even greater impact 5-on-5 as a stabilizing force, and a cornerstone member of a changing Bruins D-men corps that needs players like Krug to step up big.
The 24-year-old Krug will get his chance this season, and the odds are great he’ll succeed, and defy the odds in doing so. Just as he’s done throughout his career as an unheralded, undrafted kid from Livonia, Michigan that’s become one of the best at what he does on the ice.