Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:06 PM
Bruins feeling a bit battered
Forgive Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli – or coach Claude Julien for that matter – if they look a little stricken these days. That’s what happens when your best-laid plans unravel, largely through no fault of your own.
On Wednesday morning, the Bruins announced that centre Marc Savard, the team’s scoring leader in each of the past three NHL seasons, would miss 4-6 weeks with a broken foot. The news comes hard on the heels of a similar notice about up-and-coming winger Milan Lucic, out for a similar length of time after surgery to repair a broken finger.
Their respective absences, along with the decisions to trade Phil Kessel (to the Toronto Maple Leafs) and Chuck Kobasew (to the Minnesota Wild) mean the Bruins will plod along until early December without four of the club's top nine forwards from last year’s 116-point regular season team, and the de facto first line.
It also explains why, a day after trading Kobasew, Chiarelli turned around and gave the Buffalo Sabres a pair of draft choices for former first-rounder Daniel Paille in the first trade ever between the long-time divisional rivals. Paille, who couldn’t find a regular spot with the Sabres, will get a chance for top-six duty with the Bruins until Savard and Lucic recover.
The only mitigating circumstance is that Patrice Bergeron – the fragile but talented centre – was probably misplaced as a third-line centre on the team anyway. Bergerson will now move up the depth chart and play behind David Krejci as the Bruins – who are an ordinary 3-4 heading into tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators – try to hover in the playoff picture until their body count eases. In the interim, 32-year-old Trent Whitfield – who was essentially signed as a depth player for their Providence AHL affiliate – was called up on an emergency basis, and will be available to play against Nashville. Whitfield will replace Savard on the roster; it’s hard to imagine him doing that on the ice. In 177 career games divided among Washington, the New York Rangers and St. Louis, Whitfield has 28 points. Savard managed 88 last year alone.
