Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Bruins not optimistic about Seidenberg playoff return

Vancouver Canucks v Boston Bruins - Game Three

BOSTON, MA - JUNE 06: Dennis Seidenberg #44 of the Boston Bruins skates against Vancouver Canucks during Game Three of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 6, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Last month, there was excitement coming out of Boston as reports suggested Dennis Seidenberg -- out since December with a torn ACL -- might be able to return to the lineup come playoff time.

On Monday, that enthusiasm was tempered a bit.

“We’re not counting on Dennis to be back,” B’s GM Peter Chiarelli said, per CSNNE. “We’re going to be very cautious with his injury. He has been skating, but that’s all I can say on it. It really hasn’t changed.”

Seidenberg resumed skating on Apr. 9 and, at the time, Boston Herald sources claimed the team was contemplating a possible lineup return should the Bruins go deep into the playoffs. The 32-year-old German rearguard emerged as a terrific shutdown defenseman during last year’s Stanley Cup run, averaging nearly 27 minutes a night and was rewarded for his efforts with a four-year, $16 million extension in October.

Without Seidenberg -- and fellow blueliner Adam McQuaid -- in the lineup, Boston has relied on youngsters like Dougie Hamilton (20), Torey Krug (22), Matt Bartkowski (25) and Kevan Miller (26) extensively this season, and has managed to squeeze some decent minutes out of trade deadline pickups Andrej Meszaros and Corey Potter.