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Julien: ‘possibility’ injured d-men could be back Sunday

Zdeno Chara

A couple of days off couldn’t have come at a better time for the banged-up Bruins.

Per the Boston Globe, it’s possible one or more of the Bruins’ injured defensemen -- Dennis Seidenberg (lower body), Andrew Ference (foot) or Wade Redden (undisclosed) -- could be back in the lineup for Sunday’s Game 2 against the Rangers.

“A little early to say,” B’s head coach Claude Julien said today. “It is two days. And two days in the playoffs makes a big difference as far as getting guys back. There is a possibility. That much I can say. Whether it will or not, too early to say right now.”

Boston beat the Rangers, 3-2 in overtime, last night at TD Garden.

The Bruins’ depleted blue line meant a whopping 38:02 of ice time for captain Zdeno Chara, who also scored once and added an assist. No other Boston player came close to Chara in terms of ice time; Johnny Boychuk was second among d-men, at 26:55.

“The amount of time he’s played, and the players he’s played against,” said Julien in praise of Chara. “He continues to do that, and we appreciate that kind of play from him a lot. This is the kind of thing that you get from Zdeno, and tonight wasn’t any different.”

Per CSN New England, Julien was also very complimentary of the job done by the three young blue-liners, Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Dougie Hamilton.

“There’s no doubt our transition game last night was good,” said Julien. “Whether it was because of [the young defensemen], or whether it was because of our game, they did exactly what they had to do. That’s why I commend them for doing such a great job.

“They didn’t sit on their heels, they didn’t just freeze and try and move the puck standing still. They carried it when they had the ice. There’s no doubt that gave us a really good transition game [in Game 1]. Whether some of the [injured guys] come back or not, we’ve got to keep doing the same thing.”