Lashoff or Boychuk?

first of all, I'd play lashoff over boychuck, at least at first to see how it goes, or at least play them both one game each on the trip.
secondly, i'd bump stuart up with chara, and let boychuck and lashoff play with hnidy. i understand why he wants to play the new guys with chara so he can cover their butts and teach them, but then you still have to rotate other guys into shifts because i really doubt lashoff or boychuck will play 20+ minutes in their first few games. if they really see stuart as a future top 4/ top pairing guy, and if they see all the leadership potential he has shown at the team usa and college levels, give him this opportunity to prove himself with chara for a few games. he can handle the added minutes and pressure, and it takes some of the pressure off the new guys. and its lesslline juggling for the coaching staff, smoother transitions for the players during the game too.

also, if they are planning to play chara against the top units thats an even scarier position to be throwing either of these guys into... better to play against that line with chara than on a 3rd pairing? probably, but all game as opposed to occassionally is a big difference

Probably Lashoff on Thursday...and if he stinks out loud....Boychuk the next game.....

I'd rather see Boychuk....Lashoff has yet to impress everytime he's called up.

Give Boychuk a shot, lets see what this kid can do!

I'm with hockey. I've yet to see Boychuk play, but Stuart can more than provide the physical presence that is missing with Ward out of the line up, I don't see Lashoff providing that. While I really like pairing of Stuart and Hnidy, I think I'd rather see someone more used to Juliens system get the ice time.

Stuart is real solid defensively, and might just allow Chara to feel more confident when sneaking in to pop off a slapper from the slot. Hell, I think Stuart is possibly the most under rated dman the team has had in several years. He's not and probably never will be a serious offensive threat but from the opponents blueline back he can take care of business solidly. In someways he reminds me of Don Sweeney.

More to the point.... Ward is hardly an offensive wonder, and Chara has been criticized for defensive lapses this season, to me makes more sense to go with someone less defensively challenged than a Lashoff is reputed to be.

I agree with b&gbleeder about Stuart, I always feel kind of safe about defensive situations when he's handling them. And can add that physical side too.

I'd like to see Boychuk in one of the games at least, it would be interesting to see what he's capable of. He's been good enough in the AHL to warrant a look.

When you remember that Sturm, Ward and Ference are all out that leaves Stuart as the 8th leading player for ToI shorthanded, just behind Savard.I hate to say it but i suspect that if the B's don't _show_ they value Stuart more, he's going to be gone at his next contract date, With Ward likely to retire (according to a comment of his last year) who else do they have that can give that sort of physical punishment and stay healthy on the blueline? Ference I really like, but he's even better than PJ at getting hurt, and Wideman even if he played most of last season has been skating with a groin injury for over a year.

Stuart is like a younger Sean O'Donnell. Every team should have a couple sturdy stay at home dmen like them.

Well clearly Claude likes to have options here and probably for good reason. Lashoff pretty much has to play much better than he's shown or he gets sent back down. Boychuk, on the other hand, would have to clear waivers to get sent back to Providence so I would expect him to be with the big club for pretty much the rest of the season. Not a lot of teams would pass up a d-man who is leading his AHL team in scoring.

How much puck could Boychuk chuk if Boychuk could chuk puck??? Give him a shot! Show us what cha got Boychuk!

Like CaptBubba said, Boychuck will be here the rest of the season, I highly doubt the B's want to lose him as he has a ton of potential and he'd be swept up the minute he was put on waivers to go to the AHL. I think Lashoff will be the odd man out for that reason and he'll be spending most of the rest of the season with the baby B's. Boychuck and Chara together would be quite on the offensive tandem, Boychuck has 19 assists in 21 games in Providence.

O'Donnell? Let's not go insulting Stuart...

I've seen Boychuk and Lashoff down in Providence a lot this season so I'm familiar with both of their styles of playing. Boychuk goes to the net more where as Lashoff stays more at home on defense. I would play Lashoff one game and then the next Boychuk so they both can get used to the NHL style of play this season for when they need to be called back up again. Lashoff didn't have a very good camp but he always seems to do his best down in Providence so I don't know if that will hurt his chances of making the NHL.

Don't know what everybody is seeing in Stuart. To me, he is the weakest of all the Bruins defencemen. He has the second lowest +/- of all the D-men, while logging the fewest minutes played. If you ask me, the call up of both Lashoff and Boychuk is an indication that Chiarelli wants to see what he has in them, as Stuart has not shown to this point that he has the ability to be a top 4 guy. I love his "caveman strength" and like his play for a sixth man in the rotation, nothing more, nothing less.

you could be right, it could be a chance for chia to unload some depth in a big trade... i'm a big fan of stuart, but julien apparently isnt, as shown by his minutes. I feel that i see him perform fairly well, no more mistakes than the other guys, but definitely doesnt look as confident as he did last year. julien and the staff obviously see much more than us though.
i dont put too much weight in +/-. it can be telling but it can be misleading. you can earn a minus if you worked your butt off, didnt make any mistakes, took care of all your assignments, but the goalie or anyone else makes a boneheaded play. you also earn a minus if the offense makes an incredible play that you can really do nothing about. at the same time your goalie can bail you out of earning a minus if you lose your jock on a play. and you can earn a plus for a goal and you might have only stepped on the ice mere seconds before it happened.
as for your specific point about stuart, you could argue his plus minus is low because he's stuck with hnidy and weaker forwards and doesnt get enough minutes to bring it up. or you could be right on by saying that his low plus minus coupled with his low minutes spells trouble.
either way its an interesting idea that maybe stuart or any of these depth defensemen could be on the trading block

Hnidy and Stuart are right around where they should be, they are a 3rd d pair in a group that has a ton of depth.