St. John’s ‘excited’ to get back on field
Vaakanainen will get chance to play with McAvoy on top D pairing
The door behind him of the Leo and Joan Mahoney Wellness Center had barely closed when St. John’s Prep football coach Brian St. Pierre began to bark out orders to his team.
“QBs and centers should be snapping!” St. Pierre said Wednesday on the Eagles’ first day of practice.
That bit of normalcy from St. Pierre was welcome as a seriously abnormal season begins for Fall II. Usually, this type of talk is happening in August, not February. Also, with the Prep coming off Division 1 state titles in 2018 and 2019, the Eagles cannot defend their title with no state tournament in Fall II. The Eagles will compete for a Catholic Conference title.
But St. Pierre insisted it will be business as usual, that there are no sad faces with the lack of a Div. 1 postseason.
“We’re so excited just to be out here and get the opportunity. Competing in the Catholic Conference will be more than enough competition for these kids,” St. Pierre said. “I think you’ll see today, they’re just ecstatic to be out here. I’m ecstatic for them. We don’t need to worry about state titles right now. It’s just about coming together and getting to play football again.”
Indeed, there still is plenty to play for. It is worth noting that while the Prep did win the last two Div. 1 titles, the Eagles did not win the Catholic Conference either season, with Xaverian grabbing it in 2018 and Catholic Memorial in 2019.
But each year ended at Gillette Stadium with victories over the latter. You can make the argument that every Catholic Conference program is a rival with the other, but the nature of how the past few seasons have ended make it feel like the Prep and CM have ratcheted things up.
“Are you implying they don’t like us?” St. Pierre joked. “It’s a very healthy, strong rivalry. I think to (that) point, the Catholic Conference, because we’re similar, because we’re private, Catholic schools, and because everybody else hates us, I think we’re unified by that bond. But it’s also unbelievable competition and you grow to dislike each other a lot, but respect. It’s a respect-based deal.
“But CM, that’s kind of happened organically over the last couple years, and that’s OK. Xaverian is still our rival. That’ll always be (the case). But BC High is a huge game for us. CM is always a huge game. It’s great to have St. John’s of Shrewsbury and Malden Catholic coming back. So it’s really going to be a really, really good conference.”
If the Eagles want to win it, they will be built around their returners. St. Pierre calls defensive end Collin Taylor “our best player,” and the three-year starter will play for Princeton next fall. Junior James Guy is back to be the bellcow running back. Junior Jackson Delaney started in 2019 at wide receiver, while Nick Barrett and Peter Wiehe anchor the offensive line. Junior Matt Mitchell will build off a strong sophomore campaign at cornerback.
Other than that, there are a lot of unknowns. It does not help that blue-chip safety and wide receiver Joenel Aguero — whom St.Pierre called “the best player in the state” — has transferred to IMG Academy over the offseason.
That said, in August of 2019 there was a similar amount of uncertainty with the lineup. The Eagles routinely clear such hurdles with culture, according to St. Pierre. It is something every coach tries to achieve, but the Eagles have backed up in recent years.
“We work really hard at it, and it’s a year-round thing as far as we’re not working on football year-round, but we’re constantly talking about culture,” St. Pierre said. “Legitimately, our goal every year is to become a true team. To us, that definition is about unselfishness. It’s about staying together, loving one another, heart, and getting along, for this edition of this year’s St John’s Prep team to be the best it can be. We let the results take care of itself, and it’s focused on the process. It’s very much process driven.”
Said Guy: “From my freshman year, there was a brotherhood from the beginning. They kind of accepted me. We accept everyone that comes and tries to play football, really. For the younger guys, the older guys are the primary role models, and they try to build them up for success in the future.”
The Bruins took a bold step into their blue-line future when they let both former captain Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug depart. And through 16 games in which they went 11-3-2, it was hard to argue that a mistake had been made.
But now the B’s must take an accelerated, deeper peer into that future.
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
Already down Matt Grzelcyk and Jakub Zboril, the B’s announced on Wednesday that they will be without Jeremy Lauzon for at least a month after the second-year NHLer, who’d been playing all year on the first pair with Charlie McAvoy, underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his hand he suffered on his first and only shift in the B’s victory at Lake Tahoe on Sunday.
It gets worse.
Kevan Miller, the feel-good story of the B’s season so far, could not practice on Wednesday after practicing on Tuesday and did not travel with the team on Wednesday for its three-in-four road trip to Long Island and Manhattan. Miller’s knee, operated on four times in the last year-and-a-half, has been causing him discomfort lately. The team had left him home for the Tahoe trip, hoping that would settle things down, and he practiced on Tuesday, but he could not practice on Wednesday.
One can only hope this is a minor blip on what has been an inspiring comeback for Miller.
“He obviously didn’t feel great, from his surgery, so he stayed off,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “We may need to give him a little more time than originally anticipated and that’s it with Kevan. We knew there’d be a little bit of an unknown and so far it’s been really good for him. He’s been able to play his style, play hard, not miss much time. But the last few days, it hasn’t been cooperating as much as we’d like, so we’re going to be cautious with it.”
For Lauzon, it was a tough break. He and McAvoy had been gaining a level of chemistry through the first quarter of the season and he seemed to be gaining a certain confidence level in his own game, playing the physical, stay-athome role required but also jumping into the play when the opportunity arose.
“He plays hard and he puts himself in harm’s way, so he knows sometimes that will result in injuries for players like that. But this is tough,” said Cassidy. “It seemed like a harmless play when he did get hurt. He’s injected himself into much more violent or physical situations. But he’ll work hard. He’ll get back. It sounds like it will be about four weeks or so. There’ll be lots of hockey when he gets back. He’ll have to keep his conditioning up.
But of course I feel for him. He’ll be back.”
The good news out of Wednesday’s practice is that Zboril, who missed the last two games with an upper body injury, was a full participant and Cassidy anticipates that he’ll be ready for tonight’s game against the Islanders. Also, Grzelcyk, who has not played since Feb. 10 because of a lower body injury and has been limited to just six games, skated on his own and will travel with the team, though it would at least seem unlikely he’d be ready to play on this trip with practice time limited.
Zboril will bump up to play with Brandon Carlo on the second pair and John Moore and Connor Clifton will comprise the third pair.
Meanwhile, Urho Vaakanainen, with a grand total of eight NHL games under his belt, will take Lauzon’s spot on the top pairing with McAvoy. Vaakanainen picked up his first NHL point in Tahoe and played 23:28 of ice time in the 7-3 victory over the Flyers.
“I felt pretty good and felt better as the game went on,” said Vaakanainen. “Obviously when Lauzy went down, we were down to five D so you’re pretty much on the ice all the time so you don’t have much time to think. It was a solid, pretty good game, so I just have to keep going from that.”
It was a strong start for Vaakanainen on a big stage. But while he played a depleted Philly forward group, the Islanders and their strong forecheck, which gave the B’s fits in the teams’ last meeting, will present both a formidable test and great opportunity.
Cassidy has been a vocal supporter of Vaakanainen’s this year, saying that the 2017 first-rounder was much more “engaged” from the start of camp. But his journey is just beginning.
“I would suspect that every game he plays, he gets a little more familiar with the league and it will help him. That’s what you hope that the guys get better as they go along, get a feel for what they can do, build their confidence, understand where the urgency lies in their own game and not worry about who their partner is or what’s going on up front. That’s what Urho will go through,” said Cassidy. “I think his original games were a long time ago, so this is a little bit different animal for him. He’s been in North America for a few years. He should have a better understanding of the game, he’s been around our group here last year and this year That part of it I hope will come along quickly. And playing in a game like that (on Sunday) should help. But, listen, it’s piece by piece. There’s a reason why they say it takes a long time for defensemen to truly get comfortable in the league. … That was basically Day One for him, and he did a good job. He helped us get two points, got on the scoresheet and played big minutes. He was that guy in junior who could go out and pace himself a little bit and play against good players every night, so that’s definitely in his DNA. But we want to make sure the nights he’s playing 15, 16 minutes, they’re a real good 15, 16 minutes played at a top pace. That’s the balancing act we’ll have to do with Urho. But he is a guy, I do believe, that has played bigger minutes in the past and can get out there and do his job.”
Odds and ends
David Krejci (lower body) did not practice again while Cassidy stuck with the same forward lines that he had for Sunday’s game. Charlie Coyle centered Craig Smith and Nick Richie; Jack Studnicka centered Anders Bjork and Jake DeBrusk; Sean Kuraly centered Trent Frederic and Chris Wagner; and, of course, Patrice Bergeron was between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.