“I’ve been in this situation, especially when I was in Dallas and played on the first line and everything,” said the man who has been tapped as a possible successor to the departed Jarome Iginla on the right wing when Boston starts its season Wednesday night against Philadelphia at TD Garden. “I’ve been doing it, so I feel comfortable being there.”

After seven years in the Lone Star State and most of one on Causeway Street, Loui Eriksson has been up, down, and all around. Last season he played on three lines in two games. So the uncertainty about whether and when he’ll be joining the injured David Krejci and Milan Lucic on the Bruins’ No. 1 trio is nothing new for a man who has played more roles than Johnny Depp.


Amid hockey’s hurly-burly, comfort comes from what its practitioners call “chemistry,” the elusive alchemy that arises from the serendipitous mixing and matching of three forwards whose skills and sensibilities complement each other.

“On what you know from different players, you kind of project that this guy could be a good fit and possibly not that guy,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien.

Theoretically, putting the versatile Eriksson to the right of Lucic and Krejci is a feasible move, but their preseason performance as a unit was inconclusive, and it’s unclear whether Eriksson will stay with them.

“We haven’t made that decision yet,” Julien said Tuesday morning, noting that Eriksson could use more time to get acquainted with his potential linemates. “There’s still some things we have to look at. Certainly he’s one of the guys that we think can be a fit.

“It may take some time and we may change our minds.”

When Iginla left for Colorado over the summer after one season and 61 points as a Bruin, the 29-year-old Eriksson seemed to be his natural successor, a proven scorer who’d had experience setting up his centers and who embraced the defensive part of his job description.


“They talked a little bit of it,” he said, “but they didn’t know for sure, so I really didn’t know what was going to happen during the summer.”

What was certain was that the rest of the first line was going to stay together. Krejci and Lucic have been all but joined at the hip for years, as have Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on the second line. That’s not happenstance.

“When Jacques Lemaire was coaching, he always had these pairs that he would go with and he would always change that third guy,” said Julien. “He felt that third guys could be interchangeable but he tried to keep those pairs guys. He felt that certain pairs had good chemistry.

“I’ve always kind of held that in the back of my mind because it does make sense. It’s pretty hard to separate Marchand and Bergeron. Maybe someday it’ll happen but right now it’s pretty hard to separate those two.

“You look at Lucic and Krejci, they’ve been a good pair over the years. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to replace one than to replace two.”

Concussive interruption

Eriksson came here as a replacement for Tyler Seguin, whose wunderkind status in Boston had faded after three seasons but who had a breakout 84-point campaign last year in Dallas. What Eriksson offered the Bruins was experience (more than 500 NHL games), maturity, and leadership, a proven 70-point scorer with a quick stick who was adept at defense and had been an alternate captain with the Stars.


What the Bruins offered him, besides a city with a European feel and a franchise with an Original Six pedigree, was the chance to get his name on the Stanley Cup.

“I’m getting kind of old, and you want to get to the playoffs and win the whole thing,” said Eriksson, who’d missed five straight postseasons with the Stars. “And I think this is a really good team to play for.”

What Eriksson most wants, regardless of who his linemates are, is to play an entire season for this team. He was prepared for a significant adjustment last year, having left the only NHL club he’d known.

“At the beginning, it was kind of hard to know everyone and everything around it,” he said.

Eriksson began the season alongside Bergeron and Marchand and lasted eight games before Buffalo strongman John Scott knocked him for a loop. Six weeks later, Eriksson was dealt another concussion by Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik and was sidelined until January.

“It’s never fun to be not playing,” said Eriksson, who was out for 21 games after missing only three total in the five previous seasons. “With concussions, you never know how long it will take, so it’s kind of scary in that way.”

His frustration was eased by his Olympic sojourn with Sweden. In Sochi, Russia, Eriksson got steady work for global stakes and came home with an Olympic silver medal after returning empty-handed from Vancouver in 2010.


“I think that was huge for me to get those Olympics going,” he said. “I felt like after that everything started going better and I started feeling like the player I should be.”

A pair of playmakers

After his return, Eriksson played with countryman Carl Soderberg and Chris Kelly on the Bruins’ third line but also had a cameo appearance with Krejci and Lucic near the end of the regular season and set up four goals in a victory over the Flyers.

“That was fun when I was able to do that,” he said. “I had one really good game there. Hopefully we can do that every night.”

Eriksson had that kind of chemistry with the Stars alongside center Brad Richards and wing James Neal, with that threesome scoring 80 goals during the 2009-10 season.

“I really clicked with a good one in Dallas,” Eriksson said. “It’s always nice to find that feeling where you know where everyone is on the ice.”

Krejci and Lucic have shared that feeling for years now.

“Just knowing and trusting that your linemate is going to be in the right spot,” said Lucic. “That is the top thing about good chemistry, having trust.”

On paper, the new first line should fit together.

“Krech is a really smart player; you can see it,” Eriksson said. “He knows where he is all the time on the ice and he makes such good plays out there. Looch is such a power forward, and when he skates like he does, he always creates a lot of room for everyone else and creates chances for himself. So it’s definitely two quality players.”


For Krejci, who’d been accustomed to muscle on his right with Nathan Horton and Iginla, Eriksson is a different sort of companion.

“He’s more of a playmaking right winger,” said Krejci. “He’s playing on the right side and he’s a lefty, so it’s a little bit harder to receive the puck, but he’s a good enough player that he can handle it.

“We have to find the right way to play the game as a line with two playmakers and Looch. We have to find the right balance. We’ve got to work on it. Once I come back, we’ll see. The lines keep shifting every day here, so it’s kind of hard to tell.”

Once opening night arrives, what did or didn’t happen during the dress rehearsal becomes irrelevant. All Eriksson knows is that he’s healthy and that he’ll be somebody’s right-hand man.

“It’s only the beginning here,” he mused. “We’ll see what happens.”

NHL 2014-15 preview features:

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.