After a four game absence, Dennis Seidenberg was back in the Boston Bruins lineup in their 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers Friday afternoon at the TD Garden.

Seidenberg was not “eased in” either. He led the entire Bruins team in time on ice – playing 24:43 in his return. Although he was a minus-1, Seidenberg had a shot on net, a blocked shot and played valuable time on the penalty kill. His presence alone is an intangible for the Black and Gold.

“It felt good to come back,” Seidenberg said about returning to the lineup. “It was nice to be back on the ice playing with the guys. The best thing that is we got a win.”

Seidenberg was asked if there was any hesitation of him returning to the lineup, but he shrugged off the notion.

“No, not at all,” Seidenberg said. “That’s why I skated the last few days to make sure that I was fine to play and that was the case.”

Seidenberg reiterated that it felt good to be back on the ice and that it’s nice to feel healthy. More importantly, he said he didn’t feel rusty at all.

“I don’t think so,” said Seidenberg. “I mean I felt pretty confident out there, pretty solid and that’s what you want. You want to make sure before you come back that you are 100 percent and that was the case.”

In Seidenberg’s absence, many B’s defensemen stepped up including Kevan Miller who was assigned back to Providence. But Seidenberg knew he had to step right in and play a major role.

“Because they’re a big team, they like to grind it out in our zone, I knew I couldn’t be eased in,” Seidenberg said. “They’re strong and they’re hard to play against because they are physical. They are on top of you and you can’t really hesitate too much.”

This was the game Seidenberg was targeting to return and his teammate Zdeno Chara did not disappoint him with his Gordie Howe Hat Trick.

“He’s been doing that for a long time,” Seidenberg said. “He’s the guy that puts the emotion back in the game when it’s lacking and that’s what he did tonight. He made a great pass at the beginning of the game, had a good fight and then had a nice goal. That’s all we can ask for from a leader and we are all glad to have him.”

The Rangers hadn’t lost a regular season game when leading after two periods in 101 games. They were 95-0-6 since February 4, 2010.

Seidenberg didn’t care about those stats. He just knew the B’s needed to dig deep and find a way to win.

“No, we don’t look at those stats, it’s your job to look that up,” Seidenberg said. “So we didn’t look at that at all. We just told ourselves to keep playing our game. The only difference-the only thing we had to do different was putting the puck in the net and that’s what we did.”

The Bruins bounced back very nicely against the Rangers and now have one of their most valuable defensemen back in Dennis Seidenberg.

See what Seidenberg, Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron and Claude Julien had to say after their win over the Rangers.