Julien: Bruins defense has ‘hung in there' without Chara

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BRIGHTON, Mass. – Most expected that the Bruins’ goals against and the team defense would suffer with their two most veteran D-men, Zdeno Chara and John-Michael Liles, both out with injuries. 

But a funny thing has happened for the Black and Gold over the past few games: the defense has actually held strong for the most part with their best defender missing. Instead, it’s been the offense where things continue to stagnate. The Bruins are 1-2-1 in the four games since Chara’s lower body injury against the Blues, but they’ve allowed just eight goals in those four games against some pretty high-powered offensive teams in Calgary, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. 

The injuries have forced D-men Kevan Miller and Torey Krug to play something approaching career-highs in ice time the past few games and it’s required some consistently strong play from 20-year-old Brandon Carlo. But the Bruins are getting by and now have an imminent return from Chara, who practiced with the team for the first time on Thursday morning at Warrior Ice Arena. 

They might have to get by for another game or two without their 6-foot-9 stopper, but defensively the Bruins are showing that their sixth-ranked defense in the NHL isn’t some kind of fluke a couple of months into the season. 

“Obviously we have a huge void in our lineup with [Chara] out of it, but we’ve shown that we can get the job done,” said Krug, coming off one of his best games of the season in the 3-2 shootout loss to the Flyers. “Only two goals against Philly and only two goals against for Calgary and we played well against one of the best offenses in the league in Tampa, so we’re showing that can do the job. Obviously it will be nice to have Zee back, but [you can survive] when you simplify things and guys play within themselves.”

Claude Julien was a little less flowery with his assessment while knowing that mistakes still happen and that the B’s have lost three of the four games without Chara. The B’s bench boss also made it clear that it’s a collective team effort without Chara or Liles, a fact lost when too much focus is simply put specifically on the defensemen group. 

“We’ve hung in there. We gave up two early goals and then for the rest of the game we managed to shut them out,” said Julien. “Good goaltending helps but I also think we really managed to minimize a scoring team’s opportunities [against the Flyers]. 

"They didn’t have as many scoring chances as they normally do. I credit our team, not just the back end, doing it by committee. The guys on the back end are part of that committee that’s been doing a decent job.”

The Bruins get a little bit of a break Thursday night with a low-powered Hurricanes group coming to town averaging 2.4 goals per game, but that won’t mean any less focus for B’s defensemen who still have plenty to lose without their two graybeard blueliners ready to play. 

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