Seidenberg On Toucher & Rich: 'Definitely' Had A Chance To Play In Conference Finals
BOSTON (CBS) - Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich show Thursday morning and the interview lead off with the question everybody is dying to know.
How's the knee?
"I'm feeling good. I'm still rehabbing, but the knee is coming along so it's going pretty good."
Losing to your biggest rivalry in Game 7 of the second round is never easy, especially when rumors surfaced Seidenberg was nearing a return.
Seidenberg went down in late December with a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee and was working his way back faster than most following surgery. The thought among those covering the team was that if the Bruins were to advance past Montreal then the veteran blueliner would have been out there in the Conference Finals.
Seidenberg all but confirmed those reports with T&R.
"Sure I could have played. There was a really good chance I was gonna play if we would have won the second round. There was definitely a chance and I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't meant to be. Now I've got all summer [to rehab] with everybody else to get ready for next year. It should be fun."
Seidenberg added, "Everybody did the smart thing for me to stay out until the Conference Finals. I don't think I could have played in the second round, but I definitely had a chance in the third."
When asked what went wrong against the Canadiens, Seidenberg broke it down nice and simple.
"We just didn't play our best hockey when we needed to and Montreal played their hearts out. I guess we didn't have the luck in order to go into the next round. We just didn't. We hit a lot of posts. It just wasn't meant to be."
Seidenberg, unlike other players Toucher and Rich have interviewed, admitted to watching the playoffs intently and credits that interest to not having played in awhile. Los Angeles' Justin Williams, who scored the game winner Wednesday night against the Rangers, has impressed Seidenberg the most -- he and Drew Doughty.
Seidenerg is currently under contract for the next four seasons -- so he's not going anywhere. However, the Bruins do have some tough decisions to make this offseason, with Jarome Iginla being chief among them.
"He's such a nice guy for all that he's accomplished. He's really down to earth and very good with the young players and he's just a great guy to have in the locker room. And on the ice obviously he was really key for us. He scored 30 goals. Just really contributing, playing hard, working hard and never taking a game off," said Seidenberg on Iginla.
Seidenberg then defended the team's decision to not go after a top-four defenseman at the trade deadline and praised the team's depth at the position.
"We didn't get anybody because there wasn't reason to get anybody. We were first in the entire league. Everybody was performing. Everybody did a great job. The young guys stepped up, especially Torey [Krug] in the playoffs. It's good to have depth in the organization for the future and years to come."
Lastly, Seidenberg doesn't have a Twitter, but if he did he would've picked teammate Patrice Bergeron in the NHL 15 cover vote -- even if it is a sham.
Listen below for the full interview:
Dennis Seidenberg
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