B’s Spooner front and center
Ryan Spooner is 25 years old and has played 193 NHL games. You’d think that would be enough for all of us to know exactly who this player is by now.
Maybe we do know — for better and worse — all that the forward has to offer. But judging from his first three games under interim coach Bruce Cassidy, Spooner is getting the chance to demonstrate that he’s more than what he’s shown so far in his career.
Partly because of an injury to Frank Vatrano, and partly because he’s too often been a defensive liability as a center, former coach Claude Julien used Spooner mostly as a left winger this season. But Cassidy, who helped developed Spooner while coaching Providence of the AHL, seems ready to let Spooner prove that he’s more than he’s been.
Spooner has been returned to his natural position in the middle, between Vatrano and right winger Jimmy Hayes. He’s plus-3 in his last two games, and to further accentuate that this might be a new morning for Spooner, Cassidy threw him out on the penalty kill in the third period of Sunday night’s 4-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
When Cassidy took over a week ago, Spooner was reticent to buy into the notion that he now had a clean slate. Cassidy knows the weak spots in Spooner’s game as well as Julien did, but after the Montreal game, the player seemed to be embracing that idea a bit more.
“It’s been a change for me,” Spooner said. “I felt like with Claude, he just didn’t trust me in those kinds of things. Maybe he thought I wasn’t capable of doing those kinds of things. The last five minutes of the game, I didn’t really play a lot or on the penalty kill and all that stuff. Maybe that’s on me. Maybe I didn’t do the necessary things, but that’s in the past now. It’s a fresh start. I want to show them that I can kill penalties and be good in my own end.”
When Cassidy used Spooner on the penalty kill, the B’s were comfortably up by four goals. But there was more in Cassidy’s mind than jut giving some other guys a break.
“Ryan can be an effective penalty-killer, he has been in the past if he uses his good stick and his foot speed,” said Cassidy. “He can make some defensemen uncomfortable up top if he’s pressuring at the right time. It’s just something we’re trying to build into his game, to be a more responsible. It’s accepting some of the penaltykilling duties and thriving at it. It builds good defensive habits. It’s a challenge for us and challenge for him that I think he’s met in the past three games.”
Spooner was happy to get the tap on the shoulder for the PK.
“When I was in (Providence), I was on the kill there in my second year and I thought I did a pretty decent job,” he said. “I guess he thinks I can go out there and kill. I haven’t killed here in two years, so it’s going to be a bit of a change. I’ve got to ask some questions. I talked to (Dominic Moore, Riley Nash and Patrice Bergeron) just to clarify some stuff, but I thought it went well. On the power play, I know what guys don’t really like. I know what I don’t like. I think when I’m out there, I can do those kind of things that I don’t like playing against.”
Whether he becomes a regular on the PK or not, the important thing for him, and the Bruins, is that he becomes a reliable center during 5-on-5 play. He has certainly helped on the power play lately.
“I can skate well enough to do that. I feel like in the last three games I haven’t really been hemmed in my own end,” said Spooner, scheduled to be a restricted free agent in the offseason and quite possibly trade bait ahead of the March 1 deadline. “Maybe in the first period (Sunday) a little bit, but I just have to close quick, track back and I can do all that kind of stuff. I’ve shown it before. The only problem before is that I’ve been a little bit inconsistent with it. It’s my second (full NHL) season now, too, so I know it’s a long season and I know what to expect. I just need to go out there and show it.
“The last three games I feel have been pretty good. I’ve had a couple of shifts in my own end, but that’s going to happen. It’s a game of mistakes. I’m not going to be perfect, but as long as I’m out there competing and working hard, that’s all they can ask out of me.”
Bruins notes
There are no games to play until Sunday while on their bye week, so the B’s sent Peter Cehlarik to Providence. With the way the winger played in his first two NHL games over the weekend, one would think he’s only down there for some practice time and perhaps a game on Friday before heading out to the west coast with the big club on Saturday.