Adam Jones: Young Defense Won't Be Enough, Bruins Must Make A Move
BOSTON (CBS) - Veteran defenseman Dennis Seidenberg will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL/MCL in his right knee.
Although the Bruins have a glut of young defenseman on their team and in Providence, Adam Jones thinks that won't be enough to get it done in the postseason and that the B's would be foolish to stand pat at the trade deadline.
READ: Seidenberg Disappointed, But Confident In Bruins' Depth
"It seems like the Bruins are on a collision course for the Eastern Conference Finals again, so they're right where they should be at this point in time. And before the Seidenberg injury I didn't feel like there was a glaring weakness on the team," said Jones Tuesday morning.
"Now that the Bruins are without Seidenberg, to me that's such a significant dropoff from [Zdeno] Chara and Seidenberg as a lockdown pair to that second defensive pairing."
Promoting from within may work in the regular season, but in order to make a playoff run, Jones thinks general manager Peter Chiarelli needs to go outside of the organization to fix this problem.
"They have to acquire someone who can play on a pairing with Chara, or at the very least play on a pairing with [Johnny] Boychuck or Hamilton. I think that's a need now on this team."
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"Is Bartkowski and Hamilton a pairing that you're even remotely comfortable with in the postseason? Or Bartkowski and Boychuk for that matter? For the interim you can keep it in house, but at some point before the trade deadline you have to make an upgrade."
The young defensemen have been a nice story so far this season, but when it matters the most and the pressure gets ramped up to the nth degree come playoff time, will the youth be able to hold their own?
Jones says no.
"You're a true Stanley Cup contending team, and you've gotten through every checkpoint here in the first three months of the season. You can't go through [the playoffs] with the kids at that defensive position."
"You need someone to pair with Zdeno Chara, and I don't think Johnny Boychuk or Dougie Hamilton are those guys," Jones concluded.
Can the Bruins make a run at the Stanley Cup with Chara and Boychuk - or Chara and Hamilton - as the top defensive pairing? Listen to the discussion below:
