BOSTON, Mass – In the wake of a a four game stretch in six days, the Boston Bruins are on a full day off to rest and recoup their achy bones.
Coming off an exhausting road trip out west, the B’s managed to pull out a 1-1-1 record while muscling through three games in four nights in California — against the Ducks [L 3-4], Sharks [shootout victory, 2-1], and the Kings [SO 3-4]. However, returning to Boston for a matinée on Monday, the Bruins showed their fatigue in defeat—losing 5-1 to Daniel Alfredsson and the Ottawa Senators.
“When you’re tired, you’re not just tired physically, you’re tired mentally” said coach Claude Julien of his team during Monday’s post game press conference. “There’s no doubt we need to get some rest right now. And trying to regroup on a Wednesday with practice and face these next two teams here with at least more energy than we did tonight, that’s the right thing to do. It’s as simple as that.”
Or is it that simple? Marco Sturm, Steve Begin, and Byron Bitz are all day-to-day with their respective injuries . Marc Savard and Andrew Ference are still a few weeks away from their stint on the injured reserve list. Even with a depleted lineup, Julien is still dishing out ice time to his top players, regardless of their fatigue and/or competitive level.
“We came off a three-game road trip where we were battling injuries big time. Every game was a different lineup.” Julien added on Monday. “We had to tax I guess some of our top players a lot— killing penalties, power plays, 5-on-5, playing top lines—we did a lot of that stuff and those guys tonight are the guys that really struggled through the game.”
Dennis Wideman, who missed Saturday’s game against the Kings with a virus, still managed to log the second-highest minutes of ice time on Monday. The struggling blue-liner finished with a minus-3 rating—which was indicative of his overall play—and was no way near 100 percent. In fact, he played over three more minutes than the next defenseman, Derek Morris.
“I didn’t play the last game, but I didn’t feel great.” Wideman said in the locker room after Monday’s 5-1 defeat. “But, you’re not going to feel great every game but you have to hope that you’re mentally there.”
David Krejci was a late scratch last Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks with an ‘undisclosed injury”. But the center returned to the lineup late Saturday afternoon to log a season-high 22:27 of ice time against the Kings. Albeit an overtime game—and filling in extra time for the game-injured Begin—Krejci blew away Trent Whitfield’s [14:00] and Vladimir Sobotka’s [9:50] playing time.
Patrice Bergeron returned to the lineup on Monday after missing the previous two weeks [six games] with a broken thumb. With the cautious return, Bergy was limited to just two faceoffs, but logged the second-most ice time of any Bruin forward.
“With the team energy level, you look at our third, fourth line, can’t say anything about those guys. They battled hard, they made things happen. They didn’t have 18, 20 plus minutes per game, so they were probably in a better situation to handle this game tonight than our top guys were. I just felt our top guys really looked tired tonight.”
Sobotka has been one of those players who deserves more time, because of his “leave it all out on the ice” mentality and play. Although it doesn’t show on the scoreboard every night, Sobotka’s hustle and grit has been unmatched by any current roster player. And as a third- or fourth-liner, he has done a superb job of filling that role. He wins a lot of one-on-one battles, and his relentlessness on the forecheck results in some occasional scoring opportunities.
Through 39 games played this season, No. 60 ranks second of the Bruins with 97 hits [Begin 120 in 47 GP] and has won a respectable 91-of-191 faceoffs [51.9%].
This is not to say the third- and fourth-liners need to log 15 minutes a piece. But in order to weather the storm of injuries, especially Marc Savard, playing time needs to be distributed throughout. And if Julien is sincere in his rewarding players with extra time for extra effort, then he needs to follow through on that motto. Top-line players are logging top-line minutes, but their tank is running on fumes.
Contact Mark.Marino@prohockeynews.com
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