Wish all of our defensemen were healthy.
At least the Jackets have 10 NHL-level defensemen
As a Bruins fan I feel the same way...Would love to have McQuaid for the playoffs. He is such a warrior and excellent on the PK. What is up with him ? Loved him on the B's.
I wish Kevan Miller was in for the B's
I know its been talked about a bit, but not enough, IMO.
McQuaid and Miller are both veteran, tough, "stabilizing" bottom pairing guys. I swear to you I've witnessed McQuaid probably suffer 3+ concussions just since he was acquired. Multiple cases not noticed by many. Dude is f***ing RECKLESS out there. He's also not really a better defenseman than Dalton Prout.
Nutivaara out is a loss, and Savard, Werenski and Kukan have all stepped up their games down the stretch. And Gavrikov, I fully believe will step in immediately and make the defense better as he's probably better
defensively than everybody healthy other than Jones and Savard. And I think the idea of him being simply a "shutdown d man" isn't true.
With that said.....
Ryan Murray out, is HUGE, and I find it fascinating its just brushed off by so many people. For MUCH (possibly
most) of the regular season he was arguably our best defenseman. Legit impact on both ends of the ice.
I know I'll get the Werenski coalition on me pretty quick, but BOS (both Marchand/their top line and their "heavy" depth) is a team that can really negatively highlight the difference between having Murray-Jones out there for 25+ minutes instead of Werenski-Jones.
I would love to hear Ryan Murray's music start playing and have him bust open the curtain, and I don't know how probable that is or isn't from happening (as i believe the SILENCE could be positive or negative) but I just think the NEGATIVE impact him being out along with the (now) POSITIVE impact he would have coming back is significantly downplayed.
It's been significantly downplayed ever since he's been out at the end of the regular season. IMO.