Coach-’em-up time for Bruins’ Cassidy
Must navigate big changes on blue line
Bruce Cassidy has proven himself to be quite a capable coach. In fact, his three-plus seasons helming the Bruins suggest he’s elite in today’s NHL.
With what he faces this season, he’ll need to be.
When the Bruins report to Warrior Ice Arena for the official opening of training camp (physicals and testing on Sunday, first on-ice session on Monday), Cassidy will find a torpedo-sized hole on the port side of his blue line. Gone are 43-year-old Zdeno Chara, the foundational rock upon which the Bruin ethos of the past decade-plus was built, and 29-year-old Torey Krug, a powerplay quarterback extraordinaire who was still very much in the prime of his career.
In theory, Cassidy has some pretty good tools to plug up the crater left by the departures. He’s got two first-rounders in Jakub Zboril (2015) and Urho Vaakanainen (2017) to work with, and a 2015 second-rounder in Jeremy Lauzon, who played well on the right side (until the bubble) last year and will now get a chance now to move to his natural left side.
But the next step for these players is a doozy.
For Zboril, this is close to a make-or-break year, at least with this organization. His development has been slow, but somewhat steady since being selected 13th overall in 2015. He was one of the best defenders last year for the P-Bruins, a team that had reasonable Calder Cup aspirations before the season was deep-sixed by COVID. Zboril may never be able to live up to his lofty draft status, but he’s still a legitimate prospect. And now the only one who could block his path to the NHL is himself.
Unlike Vaakanainen, Zboril would have to pass through waivers if, for some reason, he didn’t make the final cut. The B’s also showed some confidence in Zboril by signing him to a twoyear, one-way deal in October. Not only would they like Zboril to seize the opportunity, they almost need him to.
Lauzon, meanwhile, should at least be able to fill the role the B’s had hoped Chara would accept and maybe more. But can Lauzon, a mostly stay-at-home defender in the mold of the later-model Chara, be the kind of player who could step up and play important minutes against top players in late-game, lead-protecting mode? That’s to be determined.
And let’s not forget that Cassidy and his talented staff must also help Charlie McAvoy navigate his way through a critical stage of his development. With the exception of the few odd shifts with Matt Grzelcyk last year, McAvoy will be playing without the Chara safety net for the first time. GM Don Sweeney said on Thursday that he doesn’t want McAvoy to think he has play any differently, and that’s an understandable thing to say given the circumstances. But though McAvoy was already the top minutes man, he just turned 23 years old and there remains room for growth, especially in the offensive side of his game.
Cassidy, no doubt, is going into this challenge with eyes wide open. It’s safe to assume he had at least some say in creating the situation. While the Krug departure was due to the conventional reasons — namely money and salary cap concerns and thus somewhat above his pay grade — Chara’s leaving was different. It was about the former captain’s potential usage, and Sweeney and team president Cam Neely no doubt had input from their Jack Adams Award-winning coach. The organization would be dysfunctional if they did not, and it is not that.
Cassidy has been in a similar spot. In his first training camp as head coach in the fall of 2017, the club took a leap of faith with its youth, inserting unproven players like Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk and Sean Kuraly. It worked then, and it can work again.
There are differences, however. What’s left of the estimable veteran core is three-plus years older. A trip to the Stanley Cup and a Presidents Trophy the last two seasons have rightfully created greater expectations than that still-building 2017-18 squad. And while he acknowledged the challenges on defense as well caveats about the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the unusual schedule, Sweeney said the expectations for the club are essentially the same.
The addition of Craig Smith provides the forward group that already had high-end skill at the top with solid depth. And the Tuukka Rask-Jaroslav Halak net tandem is as good as any in the league.
But the questions on D, coupled with the age of some key contributors, makes it feel like this team that’s been on a pretty good run for the past decade is approaching a dangerous cliff.
Watching Cassidy attempt to steer it away from the edge should be fascinating.