Johnny Boychuk's Return to Boston Highlights Bruins' Hole in Defense After Trade

The Boston Bruins were bound to prove nothing in their Thursday night bout with former ally Johnny Boychuk and the New York Islanders.

If anything, their 3-2 loss (official box score here) splashed a dewdrop of vinegar on the gash they opened with a trade that looked lopsided from the start.

Boychuk's presence at the TD Garden in opposing attire coincided with a shortcoming that dropped the Bruins back below .500 at 4-5-0 on the year. With essentially one-ninth of the regular season over, that serves to bring short-term and long-term doubts surrounding his old employer's 2014-15 campaign back to the forefront.

For the sake of formalities, here is a rapid review of what spawned this storyline.

Less than three weeks ago, and four days before their regular-season opener, the Bruins dealt Boychuk for either two or three draft picks. They now have the rights to an extra second-round choice in both 2015 and 2016 and, depending on how the Isles handle Boychuk’s services, a third-rounder next June.

Beyond financial flexibility, and still not much of it (CapGeek reads $3,759,667 as of Thursday), the swap yields no benefits for Boston’s near future. It has, however, left them with a conspicuously missing mix of physicality, durability and enviable intangibles.

The more the modicum of those qualities manifests itself now, the harder it will be for the Bruins to finish this season in ideal fashion. The longer they take to recover from these recurring stumbles, the more they need to expend now rather than save up certain assets for the postseason.

Granted, after the trade, the Bruins still had seven NHL-caliber defensemen on their payroll. That is the most ideal number in that position. It is a game-night quorum of six and a spare piece.

But early developments in 2014-15 have underscored a discrepancy between quantity and quality.

Even before Thursday's faceoff, the timing of Boychuk’s return packed a bonus punch on the heels of one Boston blueliner’s temporary deletion from the lineup. Those seven remaining defensemen will be six while Kevan Miller nurses the shoulder injury he brooked against the Buffalo Sabres this past Saturday. 

In a notebook published in Tuesday’s paper, the Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa was apt to note that “the Bruins expected Miller to assume some of Johnny Boychuk’s shifts following Boychuk’s trade to the Islanders Oct. 4.”

In all likelihood, the second-year NHL regular will undertake the same expectations once he is back in commission. However, a combination of relative inexperience and the mere fact that he will be coming off an injured-reserve stint could inhibit his capabilities.

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The Bruins have already seen the latter effects in a more seasoned and more leaned-on bouncer, Dennis Seidenberg.

Like Boychuk, Seidenberg has been a staple in the organization since the year before Boston’s Stanley Cup victory in 2011. Like Boychuk, he is a habitual hitter and shot-blocker, thus an exemplary thirtysomething leader and prototypical stay-at-home Bruins blueliner.

But those qualities can only amount to so much when a combination of inactivity and injury-related recovery still has lingering residue. Remember that Seidenberg’s last game in 2013-14 took place on Dec. 27 of that season.

In the same Tuesday Globe notebook, the aforementioned Shinzawa observed that Seidenberg “is still removing the rust after missing a half-season. His decision-making with the puck hasn’t been sharp. He has lost some one-on-one battles in front of the net and in the corners.”

Seidenberg even confessed to Shinzawa in that report, “I’m not there yet. I know it’s improving. I’m working at it. It’s coming. That’s a good thing. It’s going to take a little longer.”

If there is any cause for encouragement on that front, it is that the 33-year-old rearguard has been on the ice for only one opposing goal over the last three games, including Thursday's. This comes after he shared the responsibility for six setbacks in the previous three ventures and eight in the previous five.

The Bruins doubtlessly could have used Boychuk’s similar skills to relieve Seidenberg a little more in that less efficient five-game stretch. That was when they went 1-4-0 with their only win coming in a shootout.

Besides flexing the more obvious attributes that keep opposing puck-carriers from cashing in, Boychuk could have helped to pry the puck a little more. In turn, he might have afforded the Bruins a smattering of extra transitions to send the strike force on its way to more scoring chances of their own.

But even if Seidenberg’s tempest is tapering off now, there is more where that came from in the long-term forecast. Between the ongoing growth of its younger half and the health and stamina of its elder echelon, Boston’s blue-line corps will have questions of quality by the 2015 playoffs.

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The mere fact that the team is still below .500 so deep into the first month suggests that everyone will be taxing themselves more in the regular season. This will mean yet another baptismal fire for Matt Bartkowski, Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Miller.

All four grew in that fashion last season amidst the protracted absences of Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid. But shuffling to that subject just reintroduces the primary issue hovering over the minute-munching veterans.

Seidenberg may be able to kick sufficient ice chips over the aftermath of his lengthy ailment. McQuaid’s long-term stability is easier to question given his much denser history of injuries.

All of these elements combine to restate the question as to how much the rest of the defense can help Zdeno Chara conserve his tank for the long haul. The club’s busiest skater will be 38 years of age by the time the next playoffs roll around. In terms of stamina and durability, his last two postseasons point to nothing but a downward trend.

Even with the likes of Seidenberg at 100 percent and Hamilton rapidly burgeoning, is it enough to stash points in the present and save up for the spring?

Will the now Boychuk-less Bruins blue-line brigade be ready to curtail an opposing offense for up to seven games, with or without an adequately energized captain?

That is the breed of question that Thursday’s reunion can only reanimate, not answer. The what-if variety is not going to recede at any foreseeable time, either.

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com had this observation in a Tuesday post: “Newly acquired blueliner Johnny Boychuk has looked dynamite in a New York Islanders uniform and he’s been a big hit in the room, too, a source saying Tuesday he’s already become a big leader for the team.”

Never mind the six points in as many games, the team’s 4-0-0 start (now 5-2-0) or even the team-best plus-five rating. Immediate mathematical output was going to be the least of the losses on Boston’s end when general manager Peter Chiarelli made this deal.

The early slippage from the first two weeks, which Boychuk’s presence could have helped to minimize, may come back to bite the Bruins in the form of less-than-ideal playoff seeding. Regardless of what they cultivate on that front, their preparation to make the most of their 82-game earnings projects to be the uncertainty of the year.

Not all, but some of the stressors peddling that struggle could have been kept at bay if the man wearing No. 55 in white Thursday were wearing No. 55 in black on the other bench.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via nhl.com.