The preseason ceding of the Northeast Division title to the Boston Bruins failed to take into account two factors: That the Bruins machine from last season wouldn't find the right gear at the start of this one (3-4-0, 6 points), and that two major cogs would break in October.

Milan Lucic(notes) is on injured reserve after surgery on a broken finger. The team announced this morning that center Marc Savard(notes) will join him there, going on long-term injured reserve with a broken left foot and costing the Bruins their top offensive player for 4-to-6 weeks. (In what kind of hockey Bizarro world does Marco Sturm(notes) end up being the healthiest player on Boston's No. 1 line?)

This is a kick to the berries for a slumping team. They're 18th in goals scored (19) after finishing second last season. Their power play is 22nd (15.6 percent) after finishing fifth last season. Savard was their leading scorer overall (4 goals, 3 assists) and on the power play (2 goals, 1 assist); where do those numbers go now?

The Bruins are in real trouble. The Chuck Kobasew trade was going to be a kick in the rear, but that impact is overshadowed by the manpower losses.

Optimistically speaking, these injuries will force the Bruins to hunker down and play fundamentally sound hockey for Claude Julien for three complete periods, which has been their greatest failing this season. In theory, they will inspire strong offensive leadership from Patrice Bergeron(notes) and some significant contributions from David Krejci(notes), who has three assists and nothing on the power play in seven games.

The silver lining is that the Bruins only play five divisional games until the end of November, although their schedule is packed with games within the conference. Again, this could be an early season-defining moment for this club; or it could bring them down to the playoff bubble.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, facing a significant injury of their own, are in much better shape.

The Penguins lost defenseman Sergei Gonchar(notes) last night in their 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Rob Rossi of the Tribune-Review has the scant details:

Teammates were told Gonchar has a broken bone near his hand or wrist, and he will be re-evaluated today to find its precise location. He is expected to miss at least a month. Gonchar played only 16 minutes and 23 seconds, and he did not return after midway through the second period.

The Penguins announced Gonchar has a broken wrist and will miss 4-to-6 weeks.

Gonchar leads the team is total average time on ice (24:06) and power-play time on ice (5:31), and he's fifth in ice time on the penalty kill (3:20). Coach Dan Bylsma was asked last night about replacing him:

"Right now, we've had the unfortunate circumstance of having to sit out (Martin Skoula(notes)) who has played over 700 NHL games, and played 75 plus games a season for a lot of seasons.  It looks like most likely he's going to get a chance to play in the next game anyway.  That's a fortunate thing to put in the lineup.  Our game, our execution, and how we play is not dedicated around one player.  Certainly Sergei Gonchar is a very good player, but I think that even tonight you see the execution by guys like Jay McKee(notes). They add to how we play, how fast we can play, and how our D join the rush.  We'll see what happens with 'Gonch.' If we miss him, I think we're still going to be able to play a similar style and in a similar style.  I don't think you can replace what he's done for us and what he does on the power play.  Luckily, we have guys like (Kris) Letang and (Alex) Goligoski who can play that power play position, if that's the case."

The maturation of those players is one of the reasons Hooks Orpik of Pensburgh isn't pessimistic about Life Without Gonch:

If Sergei Gonchar is indeed knocked out of the lineup for a while, the Penguins seem to be better covered than this time last year.  Goligoski and Letang have more experience and are entrenched as solid players at their position.  Skoula, though new to the team and system, has been practicing with Pittsburgh for weeks and ought to have the experience to lean on to become accustomed to step in.

It may also be worth remembering that Gonchar had to miss time to a knee injury in the 2009 playoffs.  The Penguins won the game he got injured in, won the following game, and then lost an over-time contest to the Washington Capitals during that injury.  In that high pressure moment of not having #55, it wasn't like they folded without him then.

The Penguins are 8-1 right now. Maybe they come back to the pack, maybe they don't miss a beat. But losing Gonchar is something they're prepared for in a way that Boston isn't when it comes to losing Savard.