Ever since Hampus Lindholm went down injured three weeks ago, the Boston Bruins have been trying to figure out the best way to line up their defense corps. At the top of the list has been trying to figure out who fits best with Brandon Carlo – Lindholm’s usual partner – and whether that pairing could still be used in a shutdown role like Lindholm-Carlo often was.
Interim head coach Joe Sacco may have found an answer by putting his two biggest defensemen together. The 6-foot-5 Carlo paired with 6-foot-6 Nikita Zadorov for Sunday’s 6-3 win over Montreal and Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win against Detroit, and the results have been encouraging.
Zadorov may have played his best game as a Bruin Tuesday, although he disagreed with that notion after the game. Regardless, he was certainly a difference-maker. Zadorov tied the game at 1-1 midway through the first period, ripping a rocket one-timer from the point that beat Ville Husso over the blocker for his second goal of the season, and his first non-empty-netter.
That was one of four shots on goal from Zadorov, which tied a season high, and one of eight shot attempts, which is a new season high. He also landed four hits and was credited with a takeaway. He did take three penalties, but two of them were matching minors and one was a soft slashing call (if anything, Zadorov’s retaliatory crosscheck in response to Lucas Raymond embellishing the slash was more of a penalty than the “slash” itself).
“He was engaged in the game tonight,” Sacco said of Zadorov. “He was physical, and he was just defending hard tonight. When he was on the ice, the opposition knew that he was playing.”
It was that defending hard that may have been even more important than the goal, the shots or the hits. When Zadorov and Carlo were on the ice, they locked down the Red Wings’ top line of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Michael Rasmussen. In just under five minutes of head-to-head 5-on-5 action, the Bruins held a 4-2 edge in shots on goal and 3-1 advantage in scoring chances when that pair and that line were on the ice. When Detroit got that line away from the Zadorov-Carlo, they scored two goals.
Had Zadorov and Carlo not been able to win that matchup, Tuesday night could have been a very different game, because Larkin and Raymond were able to take over against pretty much anyone else on a night when the Bruins were a bit too sloppy overall.
Zadorov and Carlo also got the toughest matchup Sunday, playing most of their 5-on-5 shifts against the Canadiens’ top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook. They won that battle, too. In nine minutes of head-to-head action, the Bruins led 6-2 in scoring chances, 4-0 in high-danger chances, and 2-0 in goals.
Now, those aren’t exactly two of the very best first lines in the NHL. But they are good lines. Newhook-Suzuki-Caufield has a rather absurd 68.4% Corsi-for percentage this season. Larkin and Raymond run at 53.6% Corsi together, although the Red Wings have been cycling through wingers to try to fit with them.
“I just think they have the ability to be a shutdown pair,” Sacco said of Zadorov and Carlo. “Play against top lines. Zee’s more physical. Brandon is hard to play against because of his reach and his smarts defensively. So, if those two guys can gain some chemistry and play against top lines, they’re going to be an effective pair for us.”
It’s still early in the experiment. Tougher matchups will come at some point (Winnipeg next week, for example). But with Hampus Lindholm expected to remain sidelined for at least several more weeks, the Bruins need to find something they can rely on against opponents’ top lines. So far, Zadorov and Carlo have raised their hand and shown they might be up to the task.