There’s no denying that Zdeno Chara’s presencecan’t be replaced by one person on the Boston Bruins blue-line. With the 6-foot-9 captain out 4-6 weeks with a torn PCL in his left knee, head coach Claude Julien will need to rely on all six defensemen on the ice to fill in for Chara while he heals.

Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs marked the first game without Chara for the next two months. The Bruins’ defense passed their first test, leading them to a 4-1 win over their Atlantic Division rivals at the Air Canada Centre.

Dennis Seidenberg, who assumes the role as the workhorse in this stretch, notched 25:59 of ice time. The German hammer also tallied an assist, three hits and was a plus-2 on the night.

Seidenberg’s defensive pair, Dougie Hamilton, was equally impressive. The Toronto native seems to be shaking off his early season struggles after another solid performance on Saturday tallying three points on a goal and two assists. Hamilton capped off his night with a highlight reel goal in the third period to put the Black and Gold ahead, 4-0.

Throughout the night, Seidenberg and Hamilton shadowed the Leaf’s top line of Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and James van Reimsdyk. Even without Chara, Toronto’s No. 1 scoring unit could not get anything going against the B’s top defensive pair.

“I knew we were facing a good line with Kessel and that me and Seids had to play good defense,” Hamilton told reporters following the victory. “It’s just a bonus when you get the offense.”

Even as the Seidenberg-Hamilton pairing grabbed the spotlight, the other four defensemen held their own.

The second pair of Torey Krug and Adam McQuaid are used to getting minutes as the bottom two defensemen throughout their tenure in Boston. On this night, both Krug and McQuaid got over 20 minutes. Krug’s offensive instinct (five shots) combined with McQuaid’s defense (one hit and one blocked shot) are a good compliment to each others game and that was certainly on display.

Finally, Zach Trotman, who made his season debut tallied a hit and two shots, while Matt Bartkowski – like Hamilton – shook off a shaky start to the season with three hits, a blocked shot, and more importantly, no giveaways.

All three defensive units – much like the four forward lines and the special teams – played a part in the victory. And that’s something that Julien always preaches.

“It’s got to be a total team effort, total team commitment to the structure and to the system, and we got that out of our guys tonight,” Julien said to the media.

“Our guys did a good job with following the game plan, and I think we really deserved that win tonight.”

The Bruins marketing department is using the tagline “Strength in Numbers” during their promotional campaign. Fans are hoping that the saying holds true without the giant vacancy left by Chara.

It’s only the first game without the captain, but on this night the Bruins, indeed, had strength in numbers.