McQuaid making adjustment to less playing time for Bruins

McQuaid/By S. Bradley

VANCOUVER — If the Bruins are having a hard time finding playing time for defenseman Adam McQuaid, maybe they should give him the Zdeno Chara treatment.

At 6-foot-4, 197 pounds, McQuaid would make for a pretty difficult obstacle for Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo to look around in front of the net in tonight’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena and beyond.

“I don’t know. I never have. It’d be fun, but …” said McQuaid when asked this morning about becoming a power-play forward.

“I think I could,” he explained when asked if he could tip a puck, “but it’s always easier said than done.”

For the first time these playoffs — except for Game 2 of the Philadelphia series when he suffered a first-period injury — McQuaid’s playing time was in the single digits for minutes Wednesday night in the 1-0 loss. A lot of that had to do with special teams, but he kept himself loose and managed to throw two hits and fire one shot on net.

“I think the flow was a little different. There were a lot of penalties and stuff,” he said. “It was just one of those games. It’s nice, when you can, to get a regular shift, get into a flow. But that’s part of it. You never know what can happen in a game. You’ve got to be prepared.”

As a rookie playing in his first Stanley Cup Final game, McQuaid could have been overwhelmed by the moment. But he wasn’t. He said the experience of playing in the prior three rounds helped him keep his head.

“I obviously expected it to be quite an atmosphere and it was,” he said. “It was fast-paced. I don’t think it was that huge a step from last round. I thought last round was pretty crazy too. So things have just been kind of building up to this point.”