Kalman: Miscast McQuaid Looking To Keep Improving For Bruins
WILMINGTON (CBS) – It's a perfect time to take stock of how the Bruins have fared without defenseman Johnny Boychuk because on Saturday, the veteran and his Eastern Conference powerhouse New York Islanders will be Boston's opposition at TD Garden.
Specifically, the Bruins have replaced Boychuk, who was traded days before the start of the season to the Islanders for draft picks, with Adam McQuaid. After missing 18 games with a hand injury, McQuaid has played 13 straight games, mostly alongside Dennis Seidenberg on the Bruins' second pair. Zdeno Chara and Dougie Hamilton have been the Bruins' top pair for most of the season.
The Bruins as a team have fared well since McQuaid returned, as they've won nine of those 13 games and picked up a point in all but two of those contests. Nonetheless, McQuaid, a third-pair defenseman cast as a second-pair defenseman through no fault of his own, still has plenty of room for improvement.
Coach Claude Julien has shown faith in McQuaid by increasing the defenseman's average ice time per game to a career-high 19:12. McQuaid's defensive-zone stars compared to offensive-zone starts are up a few percentage points as well, which is a sign Julien is giving McQuaid more important assignments. But for the 33 games he's played, McQuaid's Corsi For Percentage Relative (shot attempts with McQuaid on the ice minus the Bruins' shot attempts without him) is minus-5.3 compared to minus-2.6 from a season ago, when he was in his usual role of third-pair defenseman.
McQuaid's latest struggle came in the loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday. McQuaid had an even-strength Corsi of minus-14, according to hockeystats.ca. Seidenberg was minus-13. Two of the Rangers' three goals were scored with McQuaid and Seidenberg on the ice.
"Well, I think it's been a little bit hit or miss at times," McQuaid responded when asked about his play after practice at Ristuccia Arena on Friday. "Last game wasn't a very good game at all. I'm just trying to bring what I can to the team to give us a chance to win. Again, I think there's always room for improvement and I'm trying to be better. And I'm just trying to focus and bring my game and I've had a lot of support from other guys. I think that's one thing that we've been doing a good job of is we've gotten back to that team game where guys, we make mistakes at times, and other guys are there to cover for one another. That's gone a long way, I think."
McQuaid has gotten more support from other teammates than he has from Seidenberg. When McQuaid has been paired with Seidenberg, according to stats.hockeyanalysis.com, his Corsi For Percentage is 48.4 percent. But McQuaid away from Seidenberg has a 49.1 percent Corsi For.
Statistics aside, coach Claude Julien had nothing but praise for McQuaid and the way he's put his 6-foot-5, 209-pound frame to use against higher quality opposition.
"Well I think when he's been at his best he's actually been physical. But the thing he's gotten better at is having more poise with the puck when he's made that first pass. It's really helped our game a lot. It's helped his game a lot as well," Julien said. "Whether it's third pair or second pair, I think in the past we've utilized him up there at times. So it's not like it's something that's totally new to him. We were fortunate to have enough guys that he could be a third pair right D, but nonetheless I think when we made some tough decisions at the beginning of the year, our hope was that he could step in there and do that job."
Hope shouldn't be a strategy for team-building when winning the Stanley Cup is a goal. And McQuaid has only been burdened with those hopes because the Bruins had no choice but to turn to him.
When Boychuk was traded, it was left to McQuaid, Kevan Miller and Matt Bartkowski to compete for Boychuk's job. It's not clear if McQuaid won the job or received it by default based on his experience. But Miller and Bartkowski didn't really challenge him.
McQuaid has had to learn quickly what it takes to play against top-six forwards on a regular basis. It's one thing to play most of one's shifts against third and fourth-line grinders and get the occasional shift with Chara against a high-skill player. It's another to be the guy the Bruins need to shut down a second line on a regular basis.
Barring a shocking trade by the Bruins, their top four is set for the stretch run and the postseason. The 28-year-old McQuaid is going to have to evolve even more to avoid being a liability. He's already had to scale back some of his hitting game in an attempt to contain players that can work magic with the puck.
"Well, yeah, I mean there are times where I'd love to run for a big hit. But those are the times that those guys are maybe more capable of, they might take a hit, but they can still make a play," he said. "You have to be smart with those things. A lot of those guys they're waiting for you to come to get you out of position. So you have to make reads. So that's an area I'm looking to improve on too."
It's asking a lot of a player in his late 20s to improve in a short period of time, but with the Bruins' salary-cap situation they have no choice but to try to squeeze as much as they can out of their affordable blueliners. Their gamble is that McQuaid can play a little better and the team-defense concept that has worked so well will do enough to cover up for his shortcomings.
Although McQuaid and the Bruins haven't done a lot to make people forget about Boychuk, there's still time to become a better team and defense corps than they were when they first traded him. That's what the Bruins hope will happen.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.