NHL Notebook: Bruins might be walking wounded, but they're not alone among contenders taken at BSJ Headquarters (Bruins)

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NHL Notebook: Bruins might be walking wounded, but they're not alone among contenders

By Conor Ryan

Nov 18, 2018 • 6:15 am

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Even before Patrice Bergeron went down with an upper-body injury on Friday, Bruce Cassidy was already at a loss when it came to assessing what was left of his roster following a ridiculous stretch of injuries.

Cassidy has served as a coach in some capacity since 1996, but he has never seen a team withered away by injuries in short order quite like this B’s club — with Boston rolling out a D corps this weekend featuring three rookies and four players measuring out at 5-foot-11 or shorter.

“Not this many at the same time,” Cassidy said of the B’s brutal run-in with the injury bug. “I’ve seen when you lose guys through the course of the year, five or six, but not at the same time. It’ll be a challenge, no doubt, all at once.”

Zdeno Chara (MCL injury) and John Moore (lower body) are just the latest blue liners knocked out of commission for the Black and Gold following Wednesday’s tilt against the Avalanche, while Bergeron is expected to miss some time after appearing to injure his shoulder on Friday against the Stars.

Entering Saturday night’s matchup with the Coyotes, the Bruins’ lineup featured a concoction of skaters usually reserved for the only the most anticipated preseason matchups — with players like Jeremy Lauzon and Connor Clifton logging 23:29 and 20:02 TOI respectively on the blue line and human Swiss Army Knife Joakim Nordstrom taking draws as a top-six pivot.

In terms of the caliber of players on the mend for the Bruins (Chara, Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy, etc.) and the quick succession in which bodies have fallen for the B’s, there’s no doubting that the injury bug has zeroed in on the Black and Gold in the first quarter of the 2018-19 season.

But, much to the fortune of the Bruins — and the misfortune of the league as a whole — Boston is far from the only contending club missing some key contributors over the last couple of weeks.

What started with McAvoy and Kevan Miller going down with injuries against the Oilers on Oct. 18 has snowballed into a myriad of ailments across the league as of late — with headliners such as Toronto’s Auston Matthews going down for the count on Oct. 27 after injuring his shoulder.

As Boston’s blue line continued to wither due to injuries, other clubs started the feel the sting that comes from the grind of an 82-game NHL season — with the Nashville Predators losing top-line winger Viktor Arvidsson for close to two months due to a broken thumb and P.K. Subban for an indefinite amount of time due to an upper-body injury.

Along with Matthews’ injury, another top contender in the Atlantic Division will be without a key cog in their lineup, with the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy expected to miss 4-6 weeks due to a broken foot.

And yet, while a number of other clubs are hurting like the Bruins — it’s looking like organizations such as the Maple Leafs and Lightning are well equipped to handle the losses of players like Matthews and Vasilevskiy, at least for the time being.

Since Matthews went down, the Maple Leafs are 6-3 — including three-straight wins on the club’s California road trip — while the Lightning became just the sixth team in NHL history to relinquish a four-goal lead in the third period and go on to win the game following their 6-5 win over the Flyers on Saturday.

Can the Bruins fare just as well without stalwarts like Bergeron and Chara?

Youngsters such as Lauzon continue to impress, but as Cassidy was quick to note ahead of Saturday’s win over Arizona that playing without so many regulars in the lineup creates a dangerous domino effect.

"He's a big part of our team, being the captain. Takes a lot of pride in winning and the culture around here,” Cassidy said of the loss of Chara. “These are the kind of guys you miss after you haven't won for a couple games. They usually get the message out that in today’s game we've got to be extra focused and detailed oriented and that's where we miss Bergy too.

“Those are our leaders, 1A and 1B. So that's where someone else has to pick up the slack in the room. And then on the ice, obviously. (Chara) gives you great minutes, penalty kill and playing against the other team's top line. I think it's a psychological advantage for the other team when he's out. Bergy as well. Knowing that it's going to be an easier game. So we've got to make sure that we try to make it as difficult as possible for their top-end guys. It's asking a lot of say, Lauzon, who's played, six, seven games."

Marchand still on uneven ground with refs

Let’s face it.  For all of the trouble that Brad Marchand finds himself in, he brought most of it on himself.

With numerous suspensions, fines and additional reprimands on his resume, Marchand rarely gets the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a questionable call on the ice — with the latest incident coming on Friday against the Stars.

Marchand was called for a slash on this play against Dallas netminder Ben Bishop — with the Bruins winger on the receiving end of another phantom call less than two weeks after he was sent to the sin bin for a questionable high stick against Nashville’s Colton Sissons.




In both cases, Marchand failed to compose himself following the calls — earning a pair of 10-minute misconducts and missing a significant chunk of ice time. 


Marchand, who leads all NHL players in penalty minutes with 66 on the season, will likely never rid himself of his reputation as an agitator on the ice — even as his game has turned the corner as one of the elite left wingers in the league.


But
Bruce Cassidy
was frank following Friday’s game in terms of Marchand’s reputation often putting him in the crosshairs of NHL officiating.  


“First of all, I don’t think it was a penalty. It happens 100 times a day,” Cassidy said. “Phantom one like that happened in Nashville and he got nailed after, so I think the frustration was boiling over. Linesman calls him for a 10-minute misconduct.


“I didn’t see what happened there. I don’t know. I think people pay to see the best players in the world play. I don’t think they show Brad enough respect, the officials. I’ve said that. He’s got to earn it as well, so it’s a two-way street, but at the end of the day, I don’t understand that call at all.”


Is there much that Marchand can do at this point, given that the forward will likely never shake his reputation as a player willing to ride the line in terms of his conduct on the ice?  


It doesn’t appear so. At this point, all that Marchand can do is grit his teeth and avoid taking any additional punishment. Given the state of Boston’s roster at the moment, the Black and Gold need No. 63 out on the ice as much as possible going forward.


Let’s check in on Ottawa!


When we last checked in on the 9-8-3 Senators, the team was still stuck in some awkward territory after a
in an Uber back in October.


The decision to publish stories relating to the video drew a polarized reaction up in Ottawa, with some criticizing publications like the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun for their follow-up coverage.


Well, it’s now gone from bad to worse up north for the Sens, as a
identified at least 20 seemingly fake Twitter accounts that have launched attacks against the media coverage of the Senators while praising team owner
E
ugene Melnyk
.


Of all 20 Twitter accounts uncovered by the Citizen, none of them tweeted before news of the Uber video broke on Nov. 5, with many accounts tweeting similar messages — some almost word for word upon being activated.


Fifteen of the accounts tweeted their support for Melnyk, while some profiles featured profile pictures from Etsy.com and sourced photos from Youtube, Instagram and more.


Man,
Erik Karlsson
has to be doing backflips that he made it out of there.


Hurricanes netminder opts for Whalers gear


The Carolina Hurricanes are set to pay tribute to their past for a pair of games this season, with the team donning Hartford Whalers throwback sweaters for matchups against the Bruins on Dec. 23 in Raleigh and on March 5 at TD Garden.


There’s no knocking the Whalers jerseys, which remain some of the greatest threads in sports. But Carolina goalie
Scott Darling
has some pretty impressive gear to compliment them — unveiling some customized pads, glove and blocker for the Whalers games.


Pretty impressive stuff.




Jumbo Joe scores 400


It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 13 years since
Joe Thornton
was dealt from the Bruins — and it doesn’t look like the 39-year-old center is slowing down anytime soon.




Thornton reached another major milestone in his Hall-of-Fame career this week, scoring his 400th goal in San Jose’s 5-4 home win over Nashville on Tuesday.


That tally puts Thornton in rare company as just the seventh player in NHL history with 400 career goals, 1,000 career assists and over 1,500 games played.


The others on that list?
Ray Bourque, Ron Francis, Gordie Howe, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier
 Steve Yzerman.


Not too shabby for Thornton, who currently ranks 16th all-time in scoring with 1,432 career points.

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