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Kalman: Experience, Goaltending & The System Can Get Bruins Through Chara's Absence

BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins weren't supposed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs let alone give the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens a legitimate fight in 2008 after center Patrice Bergeron was knocked out for the season with a concussion in October.

Yet the Bruins ended a two-season playoff drought and then pushed the Canadiens to seven games.

In 2013, defensemen Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden all hit the trainer's room in the midst of the first-round playoff series with Toronto. We all know how close that season was to ending with a Cup parade instead of bitter disappointment in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against Chicago.

This ridiculous race to line up and take a swan dive into the Charles River because of Zdeno Chara's knee ligament tear is such an overreaction I can only assume that the 24-hour cable news networks have given the panic a fancy three-word nickname and Anderson Cooper is due to show up at the Bruins' next morning skate.

Take a chill people.

First off, the prognosis Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli gave for Chara's injury was actually positive news. Once Chara didn't return to the game against the New York Islanders after the first period on Thursday, we all knew it was serious. But unlike last season when the verdict for Seidenberg's knee injury called for him to not return 2014-15, Chara's at worst going to be back at the latest in time for the first night of Hanukkah.

There's no way to downplay the hole that Chara's absence will leave in the Bruins' lineup. Although the aforementioned injured players were big parts of the Bruins in the years that they went down, Chara is the biggest piece of Boston's puzzle in terms of ice time, his role in every aspect of the Bruins' game and his leadership. However, the second reason this next month and a half won't turn into a collapse is because the core of the Bruins has been through this before with the above-mentioned players and knows all about the team effort it takes to share the burden and push on.

"You've got to approach it the same way, I think," Bergeron said after practice at TD Garden on Friday. "It's about all the guys that are on the ice at once and coming strong together and picking up the slack and everyone stepping up. It's always the way that you have to approach injuries like that."

If they're going to remain in the playoff hunt without Chara, the Bruins won't be able to rely on experience alone. They're also going to have to lean heavily on the man they decided in the summer of 2013 was worth $7 million per season through 2021. Goaltender Tuukka Rask (and to a lesser extent backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg) is going to have to live up to the cash the way he did during his Vezina Trophy-winning campaign a season ago and like he hasn't done so far this season.

Rask-Vezina
Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask speaks after winning the Vezina Trophy. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Opposition shot totals against the Bruins might rise against Boston's depleted D corps, which is also missing Kevan Miller. Rask says he's ready for the challenge.

"I like it better. I've always said I like when I get more shots, I get in the rhythm," Rask said. "This year I don't think I've necessarily had those games too many, so I'm kind of hoping that it happens."

Asking Rask to stop 40 or more shots a night, even for what he makes for a living, wouldn't be fair. There's no doubt that the Bruins without Chara are going to need to play their best team defense going forward. They can't expect Dougie Hamilton, McQuaid and Seidenberg to suddenly become Chara. They need Bergeron to play like a two-time Selke Trophy winner and his linemates, Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith, to get their heads out of their rears. They're going to need all four lines, in fact, to tighten up defensive-zone play.

If the Bruins' system in its current form isn't sufficient, coach Claude Julien won't hesitate to pull back the reins on some of the freelancing that's allowed and turn the Bruins into a suffocating defensive team that only goes on the attack when there's no risk whatsoever. That type of play helped the Bruins overcome Bergeron's absence at the dawn of Julien's tenure. It might be necessary for the Bruins' defensemen to stay home and block shots and the forwards to stay back and for the Bruins to rely on the occasional even-strength goal or even just wait for the power play to produce enough offense to earn two points. This could lessen Rask's workload but make it all the more important that he be at his best when he's tested.

The Bruins have survived major injuries in recent years. We've also seen the Ottawa Senators make the playoffs without Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson for the majority of the 2013 season. We saw Steve Stamkos leave the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup for most of last season and they still were in the postseason.

If all the Bruins subscribe to the system and the structure, and just a few players raise their level of play to where it's supposed to be rather than where it's been the first nine games, the Bruins should at least be able to play .500 hockey until Chara comes home.

Then the Bruins can focus on the stretch run and look back at the Chara absence as just another learning experience. Depending on which guys step up and how much confidence they gain, the Bruins could even emerge from these four to six weeks the better for what they've been through.

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