2013 Report Cards - Dennis Seidenberg

Stats:

Regular Season:

Dennis Seidenberg's regular season was much of what the Boston Bruins and their fans have come to expect from the German defenseman: consistent, stable and relatively quiet.

Offensively, Seidenberg was on pace to almost match his career high in points, as his 4 goals and 13 assists extrapolate to 7G + 23A over the course of an 82-game season. His 83 shots also put him on course for 148, or the third highest mark of his career.

Possession-wise, Seidenberg's 8.31 CorsiOn ranks him 4th on the Bruins defensemen (among players who hit the 25+ game mark), and his Corsi Relative to Quality of Competition (0.478) slots him 3rd.

But the real meat of Seidenberg's success is cooked up in his own zone. In terms of hits and blocks, his 115 respectively in 46 GP (on pace for 205 in 82 GP) was ahead of his previous highs in both categories, meaning he was getting extra physical and doing everything he could to keep the puck away from the net when the Bruins happened not to have it.

Seidenberg logged 866 even strength minutes (second only to Zdeno Chara), and was on the ice for a mere 0.566 goals against per 20 minutes of ice time, good for 7th overall in the NHL among high-minute D-men. Shorthanded, it gets even better: Seidenberg logged 133 minutes at 4 on 5, and his GA20 checks in at 1.35, 6th among all NHL defensemen.

What's even more impressive is the fact that Seidenberg logged the majority of his minutes beside Andrew Ference (who lags in pretty much every statistical category) and Dougie Hamilton (a rookie, albeit with impressive possession numbers to his credit).

Put it all together, and Seidenberg quietly remains on of the top defensemen in the NHL, and one of the best bitz pieces that Peter Chiarelli has acquired via trade during his tenure as the Bruins GM.

Playoffs:

The playoffs were a bit of a mixed back for Seidenberg. As seen in the table above, his numbers were down all across the board, save for his shots, hit and (especially) blocks, all of which he was busting out at a decent rate. The former may be explained by the fact that he experienced an uptick in power play time during the postseason, going from an average of 1.08 minutes per game in the regular season to 1.8 in the playoffs (thanks to the benching of Hamilton). His possession numbers, however, were way down (his CorsiOn was second lowest among Bruins D-men, ahead of only Ference), which would account for the increase in hits and blocks - the less you have the puck, the more opportunities there are to make contact with the opponent and dive in front of it.

Now, it's important to remember that Seidenberg missed four games against the Rangers after suffering a leg injury early on in Game 7 against the Leafs. He came back and helped shut down the Penguins in the Conference Finals, but lapsed at times in the Final, allowing Toews, Kane and Co. to score some timely goals for the win.

Despite missing those games, he still ranked 3rd among Bruins D-men in playoff TOI, and he was paired up with Chara as time went on, meaning he was logging heavy minutes in all situations against some of the top talent in the game.

Conclusions:

Overall, it's hard to complain about Seidenberg's game. He's big, he's physical, he's effective, and the Bruins are fortunate to have him in the lineup. He wasn't all that amazing in the playoffs, but the leg injury was no doubt a factor, as was the challenge of shutting down two separate pairs of world class talent over the course of the final two series.

Grade:

B