Tyler Seguin Should Be Ready to Reprise Playoff Debut Effort for Boston Bruins

Naturally, Tyler Seguin will not take any pleasure in the circumstances that brought about his (presumptive) prompt return to the Boston Bruins lineup on Wednesday night. No more than those that necessitated his long-awaited summoning from the ninth floor of the TD Garden to play in the Eastern Conference Finals.

But the fact is that with Nathan Horton sidelined for the balance of this playoff run, after an injurious hit via Vancouver Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome, Seguin is the go-to guy to give the Bruins a quorum of 18 skaters. Accordingly, he might as well embrace this invitation to hit the ice, sprinting as he did circa May 15-17. He inserted three goals and added three helpers in a span of two games against Tampa Bay, while Patrice Bergeron recuperated.

If Boston is to follow through on its pledge to “do it for Horty,” no one should be craving much less from the rookie. Perhaps he shouldn’t be expected to equate his initial output against the Lightning. However, the Bruins will need something more out of him over the next two-to-four games than what followed those two beatings of the Bolts.

In his last seven appearances, beginning with Game 3 of the conference championship and ending in Game 2 of the current series, Seguin was barren in the point department. After four straight games with three shots on goal per night, he mustered four more pelts on the Tampa Bay tandem and has yet to test Canucks stopper Roberto Luongo.

And his cumulative plus-minus rating, beginning with Game 3 versus the Lightning is even. This after he logged a +3 performance on May 17.

But maybe after another full night in church clothes while his teammates―newly reinserted Shawn Thornton and all―restored their presence in the series, Seguin will have the requisite poise. The same sort of poise that piloted him to an instant impact after missing the previous 11 games versus Montreal and Philadelphia, after he had gone arid for all but one of his last 19 regular season twirls.

And considering whose skates he is effectively filling, incentive will be Seguin’s most indispensable asset. For that, it will be partially on his teammates to stoke the youngster’s inner flame the same way they fueled themselves to eight goals after Horton left Game 3.

By night’s end, even after 12 Bruins had combined for 20 points, Horton was still the team’s No. 2 postseason goal-scorer with eight and their second-best point-getter (tied with Bergeron with 17).

As of today, Horton still has the best rating in the playoffs amongst all Boston forwards, at +11. Of all his teammates, only Zdeno Chara is better under that heading with a +12 mark.

Not to mention, Horton’s clutch play―complete with two overtime strikes and two series clinchers―will be impossible to replenish with another individual.

The good news is that Bergeron is of comparable, if not exceeding, value to Horton. And in his absence, Seguin did enough to help Boston split its first two games against Tampa Bay. In fact, for what it’s worth, he could have fueled two winning efforts had his teammates cashed in more on their own fresh legs and played smarter in Game 1 of that series.

This time, it will be on Seguin to pull off a slightly quicker turnaround, while his 17 skating mates vie to keep churning and build upon their 40-minute offensive outpouring. This time, Seguin will be asked to hop in on the fly. This time, he is expected to plunge productively into a rapid stream rather than step onto the frozen river that was his team after that eight-day layoff between the second and third round.

Then again, he will only be four nights removed from his previous taste of game action. And he need not even unleash the same carbonation that he did to commence the last round.

But Seguin should at least put forth the same effort as those games. Likewise, the rest of the active roster―save Milan Lucic, who will want to kick a few ice chips over his disciplinary lowlights Monday night―can afford nothing less than to play with the same post-Horton passion and salvage their viability in the series.