Bruins Lose Another Defenseman
Nov 1, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman David Warsofsky (79) skates with the puck behind the net during the third period against the Ottawa Senators at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
It was announced this afternoon that the Boston Bruins are going yet another defenseman down. In Thursday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, David Warsofsky ended up with a suspected lower body injury.
Warsofsky, who registered an assist in last night’s game, was absent from the B’s practice today. When Coach Claude Julien was asked, he simply stated that he would ‘be out for a while.’
“We’re not playing until Monday, and I can’t tell you when he’ll play. He practiced for the first time with us today, and we’ll see how he does with that,” said Julien. “If he gets cleared by the medical staff then I’d be happy to put him back in. But I haven’t heard anything like that as of yet.”
While having yet another defenseman go down in the absence of Krug, Chara and Miller, there is a silver lining. Torey Krug took part in today’s practice, sliding in a gold jersey to even out the numbers in the absence of David Krejci. When asked about the time frame for Krug’s return, Julien simply stated;
“We’re not playing until Monday, and I can’t tell you when he’ll play. He practiced for the first time with us today, and we’ll see how he does with that,” said Julien. “If he gets cleared by the medical staff then I’d be happy to put him back in. But I haven’t heard anything like that as of yet.”
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Fortunately for Boston, they have a lot of the younger guys who have stepped up in the last six games. Dougie Hamilton has stepped up to the plate and is finally showing Bs fans what he consists of. In the absence of Chara we knew that he would have to soak up more minutes and in doing so has tallied 8 points and a +5 rating. He and the defensive core have also helped hold teams to just two goals per game, aside from the Minnesota game where they tallied four unanswered goals in the third. Two of those games, they were able to hold the teams to 20 shots or less through the entire game.
With Warsofsky going down, the Bruins could re-insert Matt Bartkowski and allow him to try and improve on his team-worst -4 rating, or they could look to the Providence Bruins. In Providence they have Ben Youds or Tommy Cross that they could call up. Youds currently leads Providence defensemen with a +8 rating on the season and 4 assists, while Cross has a +5 on the season and 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist).
Regardless of who gets inserted, the Bruins have managed to find ways to shut down their opposition and find consistency within their game and they should have no problem doing so once again.