Bruins morning skate: Seidenberg out, Julien defends Corvo
Corvo
BOSTON — After six games as a scratch, Joe Corvo will get a chance to return to the Bruins’ lineup tonight against the Washington Capitals at the TD Garden, head coach Claude Julien confirmed after his team’s morning skate.
Corvo will replace Dennis Seidenberg, who’s going to miss his first game of the season due to an infected cut he suffered against Los Angeles last Saturday.
The Bruins are 5-1-0 since Corvo went out of the lineup, first due to a cortisone shot in his right hand and then as a healthy scratch once the hand felt better. This season, Corvo is a plus-7 with 4-21-25 totals. Julien wanted to make sure this morning that no one was blaming Corvo for the Bruins’ struggles prior to their recent stretch of improved play.
“Joe was pulled out when our team wasn’t going well. So I’m going to say it was easy to pick on him,” said Julien. “But Joe does a lot of good things offensively, and he makes good plays, he skates well. That’s something that our team’s always needed. And Joe knows that when we work with him, it’s more about working in the corners battling and not getting beat back to the front of the net and those kind of things in tight around our net area. But the other part of his game has been good. He’s as mobile as any defenseman we have here, and probably one of the best. And he skates the puck up the ice well, also.
“He’s got a lot of good assets to his game, and the fact that he was pulled out when we weren’t going well, I know a lot of people have assumed that he was the one that was a weak link. And he wasn’t. And hopefully he gets a chance to show that tonight.”
•Julien sounded like he was going to go with the same 12 forwards he’s used since Rich Peverley returned from injury. That would make Daniel Paille a healthy scratch for the third straight game.
•While the Capitals, who are two points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference, will not have Nicklas Backstrom or Joel Ward back from injury tonight, goaltender Tomas Vokoun is expected to return after missing six games with a lower-body injury. Vokoun stopped 30 of 33 shots in a win at the Garden March 10.
Is it a coincidence that he was back last night and the Bruins lost?
All Corvo was brought in to do was help quarterback a power play. His numbers before this season indicate he wasn’t a physical force, did give up wideman-esque turnovers, and wasn’t great defensively. That’s pretty much what we got. He does shoot more than his predecessor though. He won’t be here next season, and I’m pretty sure now that Rolston’s hot and can quarterback a unit, we prefer to have Corvo on the bench. I maintain MattK was 100% right when he thought Corvo would be so so at best, and to treat him as such. Surprising how right it was. He did eat minutes for us this season, so that was good, but the playoffs are coming and now we’re getting the REAL 6th d-man ready. I’d also like to say that if the Bruins win tonight, barring injuries, the remainder of the regular season is without consequence and should be used to give Mottau/Krug/callups their reps and keeping your aces sharp.
Bruno
You can like all you want, but he has been dreadful regarding turnovers in his own end. As well, he doesn’t position himself well in front of the net and his game lacks a physical presence. And the biggest thing, is that he was given way more chances than Kampfer to get his game going. I hope the B’s brass don’t re-sign him.
I do want to make the case for Kelly. He has played well and makes the players around him better. As well, he certainly knows that there are two ends to the ice. I hope he gets his 20th goal, and a B’s contract.
I like him… I rather him on the lineup then Zanon any day… I know I´ll be yelled at but I dont care…
UGH…Get well soon D-Seids.