It’s finally time to hit the ice!
A few things to watch during B’s first game back tonight
For the first time in nearly five months, the Bruins will be playing a hockey game on Thursday night.
Yes, it’s only an exhibition against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and it won’t matter in the least in the awarding of the Stanley Cup, presumably sometime in October.
But considering it’s the one and only chance for teams to kick off any rust and tinker with line combinations and defense pairings before the games start to matter on Sunday, this one will not be your average exhibition.
The Bruins may have hit the pause as the NHL’s best team. They should still be among the favorites to win the Cup. But there are, shall we say, concerns.
At the top of that list? Well, it has to be with what’s going on at right wing in the middle of the lineup. GM Don Sweeney had what was shaping up as his best trade deadline to date. He obtained what is hoped to be the long-awaited second-line right wing for David Krejci in Ondrej Kase as well as an upgrade in the brawn department in Nick Ritchie, who was last seen on the Warrior Ice Arena ice manning the third-line right wing with Charlie Coyle. The notable costs were a first-round pick, highly useful — if a tad frustrating — forward Danton Heinen and David Backes, along with most of his big salary.
Now, thanks presumably to the coronavirus and/or its testing and protocols, they are without both Kase and Ritchie. Kase has not been able to participate in a team practice since March, did not travel with the team and will need to quarantine for four days whenever he does arrive in Toronto. Ritchie did travel with the team to Toronto, but missed his sixth straight practice (seventh in all) on Wednesday and is swiftly falling deeper and deeper into the catch-up hole.
In the meantime, Jack Studnicka is filling in for Kase and the newly re-signed Anders Bjork is manning the right wing next to Coyle.
Both are good young prospects. Studnicka in particular is intriguing. In his first full pro season, the 2017 secondround draft pick enjoyed the kind of season commensurate with his top-prospect status while playing center, the vital position for which he’s projected to play in his career.
Studnicka had also looked very good in his Phase 3 practices, solidifying — for now — his spot on the line with Krejci. He’s also earned some level of cohesiveness and trust with Krejci, which can be a big indicator of success for anyone who plays with the crafty Czech pivot.
Bjork, too, had a good Phase 3, earning kudos from coach Bruce Cassidy on the first day. He spent most of the short training camp on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in the absent David Pastrnak’s right-wing spot, but dropped down to the Coyle line upon Pastrnak’s return. He had played on his natural side on the left for much of the season and that helped him regain some of his footing after having his first two pro seasons cut short for shoulder surgeries, but he played much of his collegiate career on the right side. Bjork, in a battle with fellow kid corps member Karson Kuhlman for the spot, looks buff and ready to handle the physical rigors of NHL hockey.
So yes, it will be fun to get a look at these promising players. But if Bruins’ management thought this lineup represented the club’s best chance at winning a Cup, they all would have been in the lineup at the time of the stoppage. They were not.
Something else to keep an eye on? Try the third defense pair. The chemistry between Matt Grzelcyk and Jeremy Lauzon may not be settled science yet, but it’s getting there. Lauzon, one of the six Bruin picks from the first two rounds of the 2015 draft, was promoted from Providence mid-season and has provided some more size and jam on the back end, thus far holding off Connor Clifton and John Moore for the job.
My eyes and ever-expanding gut are telling me that Lauzon will rise to the challenge of the playoffs. Competitiveness is one of his best attributes. Still, he’s got a total of 35 NHL games under his belt, and he does not possess a playoff notch on that belt.
And lastly — but by no means, least — there is the goaltending play. Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak won the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed and Rask is a very deserving finalist for the Vezina Trophy. So how is goaltending a concern? Because it always is. It’s the playoffs, and a very unusual kind of playoffs at that. Where is Rask’s game after four-plus months off? And perhaps more importantly, will his mind and focus be the same in the sterile, vacuum atmosphere of an empty Scotiabank Arena as it was in the 2019 playoffs? Those are variables that bear close watching.
So the game starts at 7 p.m. Enjoy all the concerns and gnashing of teeth about your Bruins and their chances at winning a Cup. All the reallife worries will still be waiting for you when it’s over, but it will be a nice respite.