With the elimination of Linkopings HC out of the Swedish Elite League playoffs, forward Carl Soderberg can now be signed by the Boston Bruins and join the team for the first time after becoming property of the team in 2007 Trade with St. Louis for Hannu Toivonen. But with the Bruins in a late season slump and injuries to key players, will Carl Soderberg be the answer the Bruins need to help them break their slump and get ahead to the prize of the year?
Soderberg was the leading scorer on his team with 60 points in 54 games, but when Soderberg arrives to the Bruins he won’t be getting top line priorities for the team. Now, it would be unfair to say that Soderberg won’t be able to do anything even back on the third line but this is his first time on NHL ice and it might not be the kind of environment for him to really be the player he is in Sweden. But it is safe to assume that when Chris Kelly returns to the line up, he will definitely be able to build a chemistry with Soderberg and help him a long.
Keeping in mind the question of lines, it needs to be said that Tyler Seguin is no longer a centre. Yes, he played centre in junior hockey; but it’s been 3 seasons since he’s been playing centre in junior and he should not be centreing Marchand and Jagr. Seguin and Marchand do have fantastic chemistry together, but with Patrice Bergeron out someone needs to step up for that 2nd line and the best man on the team do that right now is Rich Peverly. Peverly is a highly underrated centre and is often stuck as a winger and while he is an important member of the supporting cast to the Bruins 3rd Line , he deserves to be given a much more prominent centre role with the situation the Bruins are in.
Tyler Seguin can be an effective centre and putting him on the third line to help spark Kaspars Daugavins, Jay Pandolfo and soon Carl Soderbeg wouldn’t be a bad fit for him. Obviously he isn’t a bottom six winger, but he is an effective player that can really help out with those guys and get them some points and some fire going into the post season.
Here is a good idea of what the line ups could look like under this system:
Lucic – Krejci – Horton
Marchand – Peverly / Bergeron – Jagr
Daugavins / Peverly – Tyler Seguin / Kelly – Pandolfo / Soderberg
Paille – Campbell – Thornton
The Bruins would never scratch Tyler Seguin out of the line up to bring in Kelly, but Pandolfo and Soderberg could easily be left out of the line up if Julien and the rest of the Bruins don’t think they are playing well. Pandolfo has playoff experience, but literally at the end of his career, it’s easy to think that he won’t be given a lot of roster time during the post-season. Soderberg has no experience with the NHL and dropping a fresh face like him into a system he has no feel for and then turning it up to 11 won’t be helpful for him. Obviously at the end when Jagr and Pandolfo retire things will get back to normal, but for now chances must be taken and if it means throwing the cards up and seeing how they land is the best option for the Bruins than take it.
Every little thing counts now, it’s do or die time.