B’s Without Savard For At Least Two Weeks With Knee Injury

The Bruins will be without Marc Savard for the second stint this season after Savard suffered an apparent knee injury in last night's loss.

Haven’t we heard this before? Kind’a.

Blame it on rotten luck, or perhaps a weak  legs, but Bruins center Marc Savard is back on the shelf for the second time this season. This time, the newest recipient of a seven-year contract extension will be hampered by a knee-injury suffered just 30 seconds into Boston’s 5-2 loss against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The injury was sustained in a collision with ‘Hawks captain Jonathan Toews in what looked to be a routine check along the boards. As Toews came crashing in one Savard, Toews’ leg appeared to catch some of Savard’s knee, putting the B’s number-one center in a world of hurt as he fall onto the ice grasping his head.

By no means do I think Toews have any malicious intent on the play, and why would he? Toews, while aggressive on the defensive aspects of the game, has no history of committing questionable hits like some other unnamed superstar captains (*cough* here’s a link *cough*). Plain and simple, Toews is a hard-nosed, old-school styled player.

For Savard and Boston, the injury simply could not have come at a worse time. Along with #91 already missing a good portion of the season with a broken foot, the 32-year old center came back with 10 points in 15 games with a seven of those points coming on the powerplay. Honestly, while the numbers have undoubtedly been a downgrade from what B’s fans have come to expect out of Savard, the return of “Savy” into the line-up gave the Bruins more depth in the sense that teams were unable to focus their defensive pressure on just one of Boston’s lines given the Bruins plethora of highly capable centers.

After losing versatile center and Team Canada’s newest member, Patrice Bergeron, with a thumb injury, the pressure on Savard and fellow playmaking center (Like that NHL10 reference?) David Krejci was increased dramatically. To aptly describe the Boston offensive woes, Bergeron and Savard had made up for 20 out of Boston’s 108 goals on the season, a solid 18.5% of the Boston offense.

So where does Boston go now without their top two centers of 2009-10?

Besides the obvious of giving David Krejci more ice time, the Bruins have called up center Trent Whitfield from Providence to fill-in for Savard in terms of a roster spot. Whitfield, not exactly loved by Bruins fans after his turtling up against Flyers defensemen Ole-Kristian Tollefsen back in October, is your cookie-cutter fourth line grinder who doesn’t provide much outside of winning draws and logging seven minutes a game.

While Whitfield’s AHL numbers stand out against the competition with nine goals and 20 points in 26 games for the P-Bruins, do the Bruins really need his grit in the line-up? In seven games with Boston this season, Whitfield had zero points, was a -1, and had just seven hits.

Personally, I’d prefer to have seen the Bruins give the chance to Zach Hamill. The Bruins first round pick, eighth overall, from the 2007 NHL Draft, has 12 points and 17 points in 35 games with Providence this season.  The 21-year old center, whose stock has been questioned now in his second full season in the American Hockey League with limited success, had a tremendous training camp followed by a respectable preseason and nearly made the team before David Krejci was deemed ready for Opening Night.

Without an offensive savvy (no pun intended, but I’ll accept it nevertheless) second line center, the Bruins will move either Steve Begin or Vladimir Sobotka up to second-line duty. Begin, currently leading the team in hits, or Sobotka, second on the club in the hits category, while fiesty, have not shown the offensive upside to fill in the void created by the injuries to Bergeron and Savard.

After a Saturday matinee, the B’s will head out West for a three-game swing with the California based NHL clubs. Headlined with showdowns against the San Jose Sharks, and upstart Los Angeles Kings, the B’s will have to simply resort back to their old ways. Winning one-on-one battles, playing a relentless game from the blue-line, and limiting the oppositions scoring chances while executing on their own.

Essentially, the Bruins are going to have to do things they have not proved to be capable of doing on a consistent basis this season. Buckle up, B’s fans, this one could get bumpy.

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