Why Dougie Hamilton Is the Real Boston Bruin to Watch Against Chicago Blackhawks

Expected to start his 2014-15 season over Thursday night, Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara is bound to draw excessive scrutiny in his team’s tilt with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Based on Wednesday’s practice report from the team’s website, Chara’s long-awaited return for this game is all over but the formal confirmation. The team’s Twitter feed added after Thursday’s morning skate that head coach Claude Julien said, "Chara not ‘officially’ in lineup yet for tonight ‘but I’m counting on him.’”

Under that promising prognosis, some of that scrutiny surrounding Chara is understandable. But even if he plays, more of the critical attention belongs to his presumptive defensive partner, and eventual successor, Dougie Hamilton.

If the future is not as good as the present by now, it ought to be closer than before. Thursday’s matchup, especially under all of the circumstances, should be a top-notch test on that front.

Thursday night will not merely be a question of how Hamilton handles the potent Hawks, with or without Chara’s help. It will be a gauge of his intangible maturity. That is, will he take advantage of the team’s recent break from game action and stave off subconscious complacency with Chara back in action?

For that matter, in the seemingly unlikely event that Chara does not play, Hamilton’s test will be shaking off that development and carrying on. After all, he has learned enough over the last seven weeks.

The 21-year-old all-around prodigy has spent nearly a quarter of this season helping the Bruins recompense Chara’s absence. Not surprisingly, he has had unquestionable highs and lows in each zone in the 19 games the 37-year-old tower has missed with his knee injury.

Now Hamilton will be confronting the representatives of a model franchise in the Blackhawks, who have won seven straight and are 10-1-0 in their last 11 outings. He will do so on the heels of a generous four-day gap between Thursday’s faceoff and Boston’s previous bout in Arizona.

Under those circumstances, the anchor’s apprentice should have a better stock of energy than he might have in previous games. For that reason alone, Bruins buffs should demand more visible effectiveness from Hamilton in this particular game.

To date, some of Hamilton’s shoddier performances in Chara’s absence have been in marquee matchups. These include a minus-three effort in Montreal Nov. 13 and back-to-back minus-two nights in Los Angeles and San Jose last week.

This time, though, he should enter the action with constructive takeaways from each of those baptismal burns. That, in tandem with the extra recharging time, leave him with no excuses not to hit the ice sprinting.

Brian Babineau/Getty Images

This is not to say that the aging Chara could not make an immediate impact as well. First-night exuberance could tip the scale in his favor Thursday night the same way it did for him in his recent return to full-fledged practice.

Per Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe, Julien remarked after Tuesday’s session, “You can see he’s excited to get back. That’s your captain you’re talking about here…He’s one of those guys that sits up there and hates watching his team play. He’s excited to have the opportunity to come back.”

With that being said, nothing quite authenticates extramural hockey action, especially the kind of action a top-tier defenseman undertakes. In turn, evaluators ought to exercise caution over the still relatively rusted elder statesman of Boston’s blue-line brigade.

But for Hamilton, who Shinzawa noted that “Chara spent most of practice paired with,” this means the lately elevated expectations are not liable to wane. Facing a deep, perennial Western Conference power of the Blackhawks’ ilk entails a peerless measuring pole.

Barring major changes from its last game, Chicago’s top six should feature Brandon Saad-Jonathan Toews-Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane-Brad Richards-Kris Versteeg combinations.

Hamilton figures to play the bulk of his shifts against one of those two units. If he is on the top tier, with or without Chara, he will likely counter one line for all of its even-strength tours and sprinkle a few shifts against the other.

It really does not matter who comprises most, or all, of his assignments. The Blackhawks are the NHL’s co-model franchise, opposite the Los Angeles Kings, in no small part because of their overflowing offensive flair.

This means that Hamilton gets to take the quintessential growth test on the heels of an intensive seven-week stretch and the season’s longest between-games breather.

On virtually any given shift Thursday night, he and the rest of the Bruins will be dealing with specimens of speed. Furthermore, they will be confronting a core group that knows how to handle the kind of momentum it has going for it now.

Of all of Boston’s logical candidates to see substantive action against Chicago’s top lines, Hamilton is the closest to a complete package. His bulk, relative to his height, puts him in the same neighborhood as Chara and Dennis Seidenberg. But he has what Seidenberg lacks in offensive prowess and what Chara is missing in a proven, fresh, game-ready rhythm.

Between stifling oncoming puck-carriers, forcing changes in possession and spawning rapid counterattacks, Hamilton is the first go-to rearguard. As helpful as a top-notch Chara would be, assuming that version emerges without delay, Boston needs its blossoming young guard to stay on track.

Nothing less will let the Bruins hang with the bigwigs in the defining stages later this season.

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