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Bruins' Seidenberg Planning Impactful Comeback After Back Surgery

BOSTON (CBS) - In Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg's mind, the back surgery he had last week is just another bump along the road of his injury-plagued career and by April we won't even remember that he missed nearly one quarter of the season.

"That's the goal," Seidenberg said Monday in his first public comments since he had a disc problem corrected last Thursday. "I mean eight weeks is still pretty long. Missing any time is not good. But it's the start of the season, hopefully I get to play a good amount of games and be good."

His positivity about being able to get back to the Bruins before it's too late was tempered a bit by frustration over the injury preventing him from building off playing 82 games last season.

"What timing. You work out all summer, especially a long summer like this. And then you get ready to get started and then suddenly you're out for eight weeks," he said. "But again, there's nothing I can do right now. All I've got to do is stay positive and go from there."

Seidenberg has no choice but to look on the bright side of life. He's 34, still wants to play and is in the second year of a four-year contract that counts for $4 million against the Bruins' salary cap. No matter how minor the injury, when you start cutting into an athletes' back it could mean a diminishment of ability if not a premature end to one's career.

Just four days after surgery, however, Seidenberg was walking around TD Garden looking no worse for wear. That's a sign of the fine physical shape he's in, as well as excellent timing in terms of getting surgery done. Seidenberg noted that teammate Chris Kelly underwent a similar procedure, but had it done longer after the injury began to bother him. That could've led to a longer rehabilitation process.

Seidenberg has a doctor's appointment scheduled for just after the Bruins start the regular season. That's when he'll know better what he has to do to get back in action and whether the eight-week prognosis is correct. But he might never find out what caused his latest career setback.

"I wish. Usually when something like this happens, you're like 'oh my god.' Like doing a movement or exercising somehow," he said. "But I woke up that morning, it was that Monday, and just feeling that nerve, like a sciatica feeling in the back of my leg and eventually shooting down my calf. But I notified the staff, went to see a doctor. I got a MRI first and it showed nerves being pinched – L5, S1."

Seidenberg's conditioning has always been above reproach. His tractor-trailer style of play has made him a key component of two Bruins teams that went to the Stanley Cup finals (including the 2011 championship season) and inspired NESN play-by-play man Jack Edwards to coin the phrase "German engineering." This is the second injury in three that has forced him to miss significant time.

There's no way for the defense first, defense second defenseman to change the way he plays the game. Perhaps his German engineering could do more to tune up instead of bulk up in the offseason. That's something Seidenberg said he'll consider moving forward.

"Maybe change some training. I don't know. Who knows?" Seidenberg said. "I'm going to talk to the guys here and see what they think and what I can do different. But again, I don't know how it happened or it could've been from working out for 20 years. Or playing hockey and getting hit for 20 years. So it's tough really to say how and what I did wrong."

To be of use to the Bruins, Seidenberg is going to have to figure out a few things. First will be how to avoid another back injury. Then he has also had to figure out how to avoid the long process it took him to shake off the rust last season after missing most of 2013-14.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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