Boston Bruins: Jeremy Lauzon injury creates big opportunity for Urho Vaakanainen

Jeremy Lauzon, who has been patrolling the left side of the Boston Bruins‘ top defensive pairing alongside Charlie McAvoy, will be out at least a month with a fractured left hand.

This fracture required Lauzon to have surgery. As I stated, the earliest Lauzon can return is in four weeks, when he is re-evaluated. However, there’s a good chance he’ll be out longer.

This is a big blow to the B’s defense as Lauzon was playing quite well after a rocky first game where he was actually taken off of the first pairing. Thankfully, since then, Lauzon has comfortably filled his role and has been playing a similar style to that of former captain Zdeno Chara.

But with Lauzon out at least a month, head coach Bruce Cassidy now has to find a suitable replacement for Lauzon on the first pairing. This is a lot harder than it sounds as this defenseman will have to gel nicely with McAvoy’s style.

The injury to Boston Bruins’ defenseman Jeremy Lauzon creates a big opportunity for Urho Vaakanainen.

Throughout McAvoy’s career he has played with almost only defensemen with a stay-at-home style and defense-first mind set — first Chara, and now Lauzon.

This has proven to be beneficial to both the Black and Gold as a whole and McAvoy as he doesn’t have to stay back and worry about defense. He can use his offensive talent and know there’s at least one defenseman back.

With this in mind, I believe having someone like Matt Grzelcyk when he’s healthy, or John Moore on the first pairing with Chuck isn’t the best road to take. Yes they’re the most experienced left-shot defensemen, but they like jumping in on the rush, even leading it at times, just like McAvoy.

This makes me think this role should go to rookie Urho Vaakanainen. Vaakanainen plays a similar style to Lauzon, as he’s defense first, and doesn’t jump in on the rush very often.

Vaakanainen made his season debut last game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe and played quite well. He registered his first career point with an assist on David Pastrnak’s second goal of the game, and lead all Boston defensemen with three shots on goal.

It seems like Cassidy agrees with me for now as in Wednesday’s practice Vaakanainen was on the first pair with McAvoy. Of course, with Jakub Zboril expected to play next game against the Islanders, he could go in this spot. But that isn’t the greatest idea to throw someone in such a big role after just returning from injury. I’m also not sure Cassidy trusts Zboril in this role yet.

But for now, it seems like the the top left-defense spot is Vaakanainen’s to lose, or it’s his until at least one of Grzelcyk or Kevan Miller is ready to return to the lineup.