WASHINGTON – Here we are again. Another postseason, and another column about Dennis Seidenberg taking over. 

After last season, it's become par for the course. One year ago, Julien put Zdeno Chara and Seidenberg together and it was one of the biggest reasons the team won the Stanley Cup. This year, the pairing is once again dominant, but it's Seidenberg who has played a starring role. 

People are afraid of Chara. He’s huge, he has that long reach, yada yada yada. But what about Seidenberg? For the second straight postseason, the blueliner who literally couldn’t find a job three seasons ago (he didn’t sign in 2009 until September, when he got a deal from Florida after training camp had already started) has stolen the show.

“He’s a guy that’s always been good in the playoffs, even before he came to us,” Claude Julien said of Seidenberg on Tuesday. “He’s a game-player, he’s been known as a big-game player and he continues to show that. Zdeno is as good as you’ll get as a defenseman but when it comes to playoff time, Seids isn’t that far behind him, if at all.”

Julien isn’t lying. Seidenberg has arguably been even better than Chara, his postseason defense partner. He’s gotten the tougher matchup – some guy named Alexander Ovechkin – and he’s kept him in check. He also set up Chara’s game-winning goal Monday on a 4-on-4 play when he pinched down low, threw a shot at Braden Holtby, got the rebound, took the puck behind the net and sent it to Patrice Bergeron at the point. Bergeron slid the puck over to Chara, who broke the 3-3 tie with a slap shot that went off Roman Hamrlik’s stick and in. 

“With Dennis Seidenberg, he’s just one of those guys in the playoffs that his whole game just comes around,” Julien said. “We shouldn’t perceive that as a guy who doesn’t do enough during the regular season more than that’s a guy [that] when the chips are down and the games are big, he just elevates his game to that level where some players can and some can’t. 

“He’s just one of those guys that can and it’s an overall game. We talk about defensively, he defends, but he’s a good skater, he’s got a great shot, he can make plays and when he’s confident he’s as good a defenseman as any in this league.”

The matchup that got all the attention was Ovechkin vs. Chara, for obvious reasons. For starters, each is the best players on their respective teams, and they figured to be on the ice against one another as they had been in the past. 

Yet the matchup of Ovechkin’s line with Chara's pairing suggests that it would be Seidenberg, a right defenseman, who would see lots of Ovechkin, the first line’s left wing. 

After the morning skate on the day of Game 1, Seidenberg half-kiddingly noted that he would expect Washington’s skill players to go after him. The reason? That was easy: Because it’s a lot easier than trying to go against Chara. 

Yet Seidenberg, who is quick to praise others but has a Chris-Kelly-esque dislike for taking any of the credit himself, was selling himself short. Ovechkin could probably attest to that. 

Through three games this postseason, Ovechkin has managed only one point – his second-period goal Monday – when Seidenberg has been on the ice. The two have kept it clean with the exception of Ovechkin’s cross-check to the face of Seidenberg in Game 2, but they’ve battled throughout the series in what’s been a highly physical matchup. Ovechkin’s even dropped Seidenberg a few times on their collisions, but Seidenberg says that as long as he’s battling with Ovehckin, he’s preventing him from doing something else. 

As for the physical toll that a series of Ovechkin can take, Seidenberg doesn’t mind it. 

“It's a lot of fun,” he said Tuesday. “It's a tough battle. He's a very thick guy, but it's fun. It's playoff hockey. You play a little harder and that's what it's all about.”  

Andrew Ference -- who was one of the Bruins’ unsung heroes last postseason -- thinks that an extended matchup with Ovechkin will help people gain an appreciation for what Seidenberg brings. It’s no knock on Seidenberg, but Ference isn’t sure that he even sees a huge difference between the regular season Seindeberg and the postseason Seidenberg. 

Ference sees the same style of play and the same defensive responsibility that he’s used to seeing from the German defenseman. Now, he feels that everyone else can see it. 

“Series are different, because you're playing against the same guys over and over and it's almost like one really long game,” Andrew Ference said.” I think he does a very good job getting extremely focused on his assignment. He reads tendencies really well and can kind of key on those. I think he plays great all the time, but I think it becomes more obvious to everyone else, those subtleties, when it's against the same guy over and over again. 

“I don't think there's a massive change, but it just gets magnified when it's against the same line and the same player so many shifts in a row. Every game that passes, you could see how good he actually is playing.”

Seidenberg isn’t going to flat out say that he’s once again become a better player in the postseason, or why. All that matters to the Bruins is that their top pair is once again being its dominant self. 

“Maybe you play a little bit more reckless,” Seidenberg said. “In the regular season I don't think I would try to hit as hard, but I don't know what it is. I think I really enjoy playing in the postseason, and I guess that makes me play that way.”