The Boston Bruins were without three veteran defensemen in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the New York Rangers on Thursday as Dennis Seidenberg, Andrew Ference and Wade Redden couldn't play because of injuries.
As
a result, Bruins head coach Claude Julien was forced to insert rookie
defensemen Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Dougie Hamilton onto his blue
line, and these young players performed very well despite their lack of
playoff experience (five games combined).Even though the Bruins have a lot of confidence in these rookies, the team should be at least a little bit surprised that they played a major role in the Bruins taking a 1-0 series lead with a 3-2 overtime victory.
"I thought they played really well," said Julien in his postgame press conference.
"They deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled themselves, all three of them. It was Torey’s [Krug] first game, obviously. Not only did he score a big goal, but he just moved that puck so well. A lot of times, he played against their third line which is a pretty heavy line. I thought he handled them extremely well.
"Bart [Matt Bartkowski] continues to get better and better. He certainly takes the ice that’s given to him, he moves the puck up quickly...We’ve seen Dougie [Hamilton] with us all year. I thought they did a great job, but also our veterans that were back there with them."
Not many teams have the depth to be able to call up two talented young defensemen (Bartkowski and Krug) with very little or no NHL playoff experience from the AHL and get positive impacts in all three zones immediately, but the Bruins have this luxury because of their ability to identify, sign and draft quality young blueliners on a regular basis.
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