Lauzon’s long road back
Scar a reminder for young Bruin
The memory is now twoand-a-half years old, and it is not a constant companion to Jeremy Lauzon. But if he ever wants a reminder, all the Bruins rookie has to do is look in the mirror and turn his head to left to see the now fading scar that runs from high on his throat, past his ear and all the way the under his hair line on the back of his head. The scar is a memento from his junior hockey days with Rouyn-Noranda back in April of 2016, when a skate came up and clipped him in the throat. It could have not just threatened his career, his worse. Fortunately, he was rushed into emergency surgery that night and he was able to make a remarkable comeback. Taken in the second round (52nd overall) by the Bruins the previous summer, Lauzon returned to his team a month later and has continued on his track to being an NHL player. After a highly educational first pro season in Providence last year and then a strong preseason this year, Lauzon made his NHL debut for the injury-riddled B’s on Thursday night in the 3-0 victory over the Flyers. After a solid 11:25 of icetime on his milestone, he was reminded of that scary night a couple of years ago and he nodded thoughtfully. “I know that night I was almost done with hockey,” said Lauzon. “I was lucky to be able to play hockey again. I realized that it’s very special. I think that’s another thing in my baggage that helps go through adversity. But right now I’m 100 percent. I’m really happy to be here and play the sport that I love.” A player’s mind can travel a number of directions after such an experience. He can be spooked by the incredible danger of the sport, which would be understandable. Or his close call could imbue him with a new zest. Lauzon’s went the latter route. He was determined to rejoin his team before the season was out and he did join them again to finish the Huskies’ run in the Memorial Cup. It also helped that he didn’t have to withstand the initial shock everyone else went through. “People around me were more traumatized than myself,” said Lauzon. “I think a big reason is because I wasn’t able to see the cut. I just remember my Dad, and he’s a doctor, and he was just really nervous. I was his son. I just tried to calm down everybody and telling everybody that I was fine. But, yeah, I think it (affected) me a lot. Life is short and you never know what can happen. So you have to enjoy every moment.” He said neither his father or mother, who is a doctor, wanted him to quit the sport because of the injury. “The only thing my Mom says is ‘school is important’ and she wants me to take some university classes. So I’ll probably do that after Christmas to make her proud,” he said with a grin. But he has been getting quite an education since turning pro. He’s gone from being a puck-moving, high scoring defenseman in junior to being more of physical, stay-at-home blue liner as a pro – at least so far. “Last year wasn’t my best year offensively. Overall, it wasn’t my best year. But I learned a lot on the defensive side and this year I came into the year with a lot of confidence and I think it showed my first couple of games in the AHL and I tried to translate that confidence here. And I felt petty good,” said Lauzon, who beefed up about a dozen pounds over the summer. “Last year I didn’t have a lot points and maybe mentally I was trying to get some points. I’d have a bad bounce or hit a post. At one point I said to myself that I don’t care about points and I want to play hard to defensively. That’s what I did last year, just tried to build my defensive side of the game. I tried to become reliable and I think I did that. Now I don’t think I need to worry about that because it comes natural. And now I’d like to get some pucks on net and make some plays.”
Hanover’s own rises
Last year, the Ottawa Senators’ first-round draft pick from 2015 (21st overall), Hanover’s Colin White, who left Boston College two years early to sign with the Sens, had a rough go of it. Just as he was about to start his first pro season, White suffered a broken wrist that put him on the shelf for a couple of months. Once healthy, he subsequently had his ups and downs with AHL Belleville (11-16-27, minus-17 in 47 games) before getting promoted to the sinking Sens’ varsity, where he had 2-4-6 totals in 21 games. But now it looks like he’s ready to contribute in a meaningful way. Going into the game against the B’s on Tuesday, he had 2-2-4 totals in seven games and had gotten bumped up from a bottom-six center position to a prime spot as right wing with Matt Duchene and Mikkel Boedker. “Getting hurt last year was definitely tough on me, just to handle and go through,” said White. “But I think ultimately I am now where I expected to be and want to be now and hopefully I’ll play a full season here. That’s the goal.” The Sens have been surprisingly competitive in the first month of the season with a 4-3-1 record going into the weekend (two of the three losses came at the hands of the Bruins). Whether or not they wind up near the cellar like a lot of us believe, the Sens so far have not allowed the prognosticators to dictate where they finish. “Look at Vegas last year,” said White. “For us, it’s just about having fun and coming to the rink every day. We may lose, but we still come to the rink the next day ready to work and we’re having fun. When you’re not having fun, then that’s when you’re in trouble.”
Julien connects
Former NHLer Peter Worrell penned an interesting piece for Radio-Canada about a prolonged, torturous racial incident he had to endure when he was playing junior hockey in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the Hull Olympiques. Worrell, who is black, and the Olympiques were playing in Beaufort, Quebec when, throughout the game, a spectator rained the most vile of racial insults at Worrell. He had heard epithets before and after that, but nothing so vehement nor interminable. Though it clearly left an indelible mark on him, he credited, among others, then-assistant coach Claude Julien for helping him get through it, pulling him aside in practice the next day. “He asked me how I was doing, how I felt after all that,” wrote Worrell. “He also told me how much it affected him. To his credit, he didn’t serve up the old ‘I know how you feel.’ He knew he could not really know how I felt. But he also knew his player was hurting. So he allowed me to say what I had to say, and gave me some tips to help me channel my emotions.” A frequent, way-off-themark criticism for much of Julien’s decade-long tenure behind the Bruins’ bench was that he didn’t want or didn’t know how to coach young players, never mind the fact that he nurtured kids like Brad Marchand, Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron to a Stanley Cup. But even moreso, the incident Worrell recounts demonstrates that Julien can coach young players in the most difficult of circumstances. Let the kid have it Adults have a way of screwing everything up. Last week, Capitals’ goalie Braden Holtby tried flipping up a puck into the stands as a present to a kid behind the glass after warmups. Players do it every game, in every city. This time, just as the puck was about to descend int the kid’s hands, an alleged grown-up in a Capitals sweater reached over him to grab it – and he couldn’t have been happier with himself. Holtby gave a long death stare, but the guy wasn’t about to cough it up for the kid. Some people have no shame.
Coming up for B’s
Tuesday at Carolina, 7 – Under out-of-the-box new ownership, the C’anes have thus far been one of the surprise teams of the NHL. Saturday at Nashville, 8 p.m. – The Predators have been playing like the Stanley Cup hopeful that they are.