Practice time at a premium
Cassidy must use rare downtime wisely during tight schedule
The Bruins right now are learning what many teams have already known — the schedule for the 2021 season is brutal.
Between now and the end of the regular season on May 8, they have just two more two-day breaks in between games, and after Friday’s game against the Rangers, they have six more back-tobacks. On Thursday, coach Bruce Cassidy said the team will be in “playoff mode” until the end of their season. The B’s hope that comes sometime in July.
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
It will be one hellacious pace that will test the B’s ability to withstand the war of attrition that is usually only talked about in the postseason.
Another problem posed by the schedule is the practice time that will no doubt be squeezed out. When things are going well, like they have for most of the season for the B’s, that’s not a huge problem. But on Friday morning, things weren’t great. Not only had they lost three of four, that third loss came in an ignominious third-period collapse on Long Island on Thursday.
Playing the second half of a back-to-back and the second of three games in four days, Cassidy scrapped Friday’s morning skate, which would not be unusual in this situation, even in a usual, more spaced out 82-game schedule.
But Thursday’s loss to the Islanders was chock-full of teaching moments, especially for a couple of young players, and Cassidy must find ways to overcome the lack of on-ice tutelage time.
“We hit a rut (Thursday night), to be honest, and it would be nice to get out there today and work on a few things, but I think it would be counter-productive in the long run,” said Cassidy on Friday morning. “I think you just have to use your time wisely, get feedback from the players, whether they’re better served resting during a tough schedule or getting their work done. And then you have to be efficient when you are at practice. But it is a little more difficult, when you’re incorporating new guys, especially in certain special teams situations, situations where chemistry with the puck matters. I think without the puck, you can use video a little bit more. You talk to guys about position. But with the puck, there’s a little bit of those little nuances where you just have to get out and do it. That’s where you miss it. Power play specifically hasn’t been where we expected it to be recently (3-for-18 in their previous seven games going into Friday), so that’s an area where we do need to get some work. But hopefully the guys who have been on the unit have been together long enough to take control and we’ll get a little bit cleaner here.”
Odd-men out
The B’s were victimized on two two-on-ones on Thursday, both resulting in goals, with Islanders star Mathew Barzal orchestrating both tallies from the left wing. Cassidy explained that in such situations, his D-men are generally taught to take away the pass while still baiting the puck carrier.
On the first one, John Moore was too passive and Barzal, with loads of time and space, sniped a far-side shot past Jaroslav Halak .On the second one, Urho Vaakanainen was too aggressive and Barzal was able to flip a pass over to a wide-open Jordan Eberle for the insurance goal.
But Cassidy was examining the genesis of the oddman rush as much as the final line of defense.
“Part of that’s a bad pinch, right?” said Cassidy, focusing on the second one in the third when Charlie McAvoy was caught up ice. “We’re pinching on a play. I know we’re down in the third and we’re trying to keep pucks alive, so some of that’s going to happen, if you’re trying to get back in the game with that type of play. I thought that wasn’t a great decision, either, and it’s a domino effect that leads to an oddman rush because the high forward’s not in position to support the pinch. There’s a lot that goes into it. Obviously the end result is the goal and defending the two-onone. But I think it goes back to what happened before that to not put ourselves in those positions. That happened a few times. … We need to correct some stuff before those two-on-ones. Clearly we need to defend them better. But as a coach, I’m looking at where did it start.”
As for Vaakanainen, who is getting an accelerated look on the top pair with McAvoy because of the injury to Cassidy didn’t hesitate to put the rookie right back in the lineup for Friday’s game against the Rangers.
“He’s got to have a little bit of a cornerback mentality in football. You’ve got to put it behind you. There’s another new wide receiver coming tomorrow,” said Cassidy, pointing out that Vaakanainen did some good things offensively before the tough third.
“We’re not down on Vaak. We’re just going to work with him. (He needs to) understand what he’s going to see each night. And live it. Experience will be the best teacher for him. And unfortunately (Thursday) night, he got schooled a little bit.”
Odds and ends
Matt Grzelcyk (lower body) was scheduled to miss his 12th game of the season on Friday, but Cassidy did not rule him out for Sunday’s matinee at Madison Square Garden.
The Bruins are suffering from an identity crisis right now. They have completely forgotten who they’re supposed to be.
That tight-checking, highly competitive group that got off to such a good start to the season? That team has been nowhere to be found the last two nights, and 24 hours after being run out of Nassau Coliseum by the Islanders, the B’s had the same scenario dropped on them by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
Similar to Thursday’s game in Long Island, the B’s were in this one late in the second period only to give up four straight goals and lose 6-2 to the Rangers.
“This doesn’t happen here. It can’t go on any further like this,” said Brandon Carlo of the back-to-back drubbings. “This is unacceptable.”
Yes, the B’s are riddled with injuries and some young players are being forced into and up in the lineup, and they especially miss the big beef of Jeremy Lauzon (broken hand) and Kevan Miller (reaggravation of knee pain from four surgeries). But this is the hand they’ve been dealt. For the second night in a row, rookie Urho Vaakanainen got manhandled on a couple of goals. Both Vaakanainen and fellow rookie Jakub Zboril need to focus on using their strong stick skills to get the puck up and out of the zone so they’re not put in the position of being overpowered, said coach Bruce Cassidy.
“We’re trying to get through a stretch with the back end that’s still sorting things out and learning,” said Cassidy. “A couple of things have to happen. They have to play better and recognize what they can get away with and what they can’t. Just too many turnovers and reckless play. We’ve got to do a better job of coaching them up, no doubt, so that’s on us. By the same token, once they get on the ice, they have to recognize how they can help us win games. That’s the one thing we’ve got to correct. Second, knowing that we have some valuable guys out, the stiffness in front of the net with Lauzon and Miller and the puck mover in (Matt) Grzelcyk, as a team, you have to pick up that group. That means an extra save along the way. That means secondary scoring and working hard to get back into your own end to limit the damage, winning your wall battles so that we don’t have to defend a lot.”
Cassidy also challenged his group of young veterans to get them through these challenging days.
“You know (Patrice Bergeron) and their line is going to find their game,” said Cassidy. “But the guys in the middle who have an opportunity and some days maybe go home and say ‘Geez, I wish I got more minutes’ or ‘I wish I had a better chance,’ the (Anders) Bjorks, the (Jake) DeBrusks, the Johnny Moores, the (Connor) Cliftons who have been out of the lineup, guys who’ve been in the league a little bit, (Chris Wagner and Sean Kuraly), who are going to see more minutes because it’s three in four nights and it’s back-to-back, (they need to) put a little onus on themselves to impact the game.”
As the game wore on, Cassidy saw “easy goals. Just too easy.”
Smarting from a brutal third-period showing in their 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the Islanders on Thursday, the Bruins did not exactly come out for the first period breathing fire. In fact, the Rangers took it to them physically (17-8 hit advantage in the first), both with their shoulders and their legs, winning races and battles all over the ice.
And at 13:03, the Blueshirts took a 1-0 lead. Operating on the left wing, Julien Gauthier shrugged off a Carlo check and was able to twirl back into the faceoff circle with time and space to fire a decent shot. With a heavy screen in front, Gauthier’s shot beat a helpless Tuukka Rask to the short side.
An opportunity presented itself right off the secondperiod puck drop when Kuraly took a stick up high and the B’s went right back on the power play. They applied some decent pressure and nearly evened it when Jack Studnicka’s backhander went off the crossbar.
And not long after that missed opportunity, the Rangers made it 2-0 at 2:32. The teenage Alexis Lafreniere, the first overall pick in the last draft, made his first NHL assist a beauty, zipping a cross-ice feed to Ryan Strome, who beat Rask from a prime scoring area at the bottom of the right circle.
Finally, that seemed to get the Bruins’ attention and they pushed back. Shortly after Trent Frederic buried a Ranger in the neutral zone, the B’s got on the board.
Charlie McAvoy made a nice self-pass off the boards to penetrate the offensive zone and dished to Brad Marchand, who tried to set up David Pastrnak for the one-timer. Pastrnak did not have a good angle on the puck and, with goalie Alexander Georgiev over-committing to the shot, he pushed it to Bergeron for an easy tap-in at 4:02.
That gave Bergeron his 889th career point, moving him past Bobby Orr for fifth place in points in club history.
The B’s appeared poised to climb back in this one, especially after they got Brendan Lemieux to take a post-whistle roughing penalty on DeBrusk after DeBrusk jammed the net. And on the power play, Charlie Coyle nearly evened it when he had some space over Georgiev’s glove but hit the post.
But then things fell apart again.
First, Marchand took a high-sticking penalty off an offensive zone penalty, and though the Rangers didn’t score on that PP, the Blueshirts gained some momentum. And when Nick Ritchie took an offensive zone tripping penalty with 1:18 left in the period, the sky fell for the second straight night.
Ten seconds after Ritchie took a seat in the box, Colin Blackwell tipped an Adam Fox blue-line shot past Rask to give the Rangers their two-goal lead back.
They weren’t done. Just 12 seconds later, Chris Kreider easily shook off a Vaakanainen check attempt behind the Bruins net, came out on the other side and threw the puck on net, banking it off McAvoy and in.
“That’s Vaak. He’s going to have to learn to get stronger,” said Cassidy.
It was shaping up as one of those nights. Again.
The Rangers tacked on two more in the first four minutes of the third and the only objective left was to mitigate the embarrassment. Later in the game, Marchand scored his 10th of the season, his 300th career goal. But a celebration was not in order.
Jason Varitek was in a familiar position Friday morning on the fields behind JetBlue Park, crouched down and dressed in a full catcher’s uniform, catching bullpens from Red Sox pitchers.
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Of course, those moments are now rare for Varitek, who retired following the 2011 season. But after spending most of his postplaying career behind the scenes within the Red Sox organization, Varitek’s role has become more prominent. He was a special assistant catching coach last season, and when Alex Cora was rehired as manager this offseason, Varitek was named to the coaching staff, where he’s now the game-planning coordinator.
With a heavy day of bullpens coming Sunday and games beginning soon, the former Red Sox captain is helping out in any way he can early in camp. On Friday, that meant putting his gear on and getting a little dirty again.
“For him, the willingness for him to do anything for us, that’s what makes him special and I’m glad that he’s with us as a coach,” Cora said.
Friday seems to be a sign of things to come with how involved Varitek will be on the coaching staff. With first-year bench coach Will Venable still adjusting, Cora wants his coaching staff to help support him. That includes Varitek, who will work closely with catchers Christian Vázquez and Kevin Plawecki but also help wherever there’s a need for him.
“He’s still the captain,” Cora said. “He walks around and there’s a presence about him. Just like (Dustin) Pedroia, this is a guy that when he talks, people listen. I’m glad that he’s here with me. He’s been here with me the whole time and I think this experience is going to help him out for the future. Like I said in November, I hope all these guys around me (his coaching staff), they become big-league managers. All of them. That would be great.”
Varitek’s name has already been floated as a future manager. He reportedly interviewed for the Mariners’ opening in 2015, and he told The Athletic last November that it’s his hope to manage one day. When that comes, he’ll certainly have Cora’s approval.
“He will manage in the big leagues,” Cora said. “He will. But it’s a process, and we talked about it. I think in time, somebody is going to give him a chance and he’s gonna kill it. He’s gonna be great.”
‘Best day’
Cora couldn’t help but soak in what he was seeing during camp on Friday as he watched his players go through drills and bullpens. It was a significant day on multiple levels for the manager, who has certainly been cherishing his second chance to lead the Red Sox.
“I gotta be honest with you, today was one of those days I envisioned in the offseason,” Cora said. “This is why I’m back. That was awesome. Awesome. You had machines everywhere, we were working on a lot of stuff. It was gratifying, to be honest with you. I was like, ‘Wow, this is cool.’ This is what we worked on together in the offseason, to have days like this. I’m going to tell the group, that was the best day of spring training so far. And we’ve been solid so far, but today was amazing. It was cool to see.”
News & notes
Cora said that new relief pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura, whose arrival to camp has been delayed as he waits for visa approval from Japan, should be reporting to Fort Myers in less than a week. But he later clarified during his appearance on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria” that Sawamura will be flying from Japan to Fort Myers on Saturday.
Once he arrives, Sawamura will have to take a physical and go through intake screening before he begins working out. Sawamura has continued to do work while in Japan.
“He should be fine as far as his progression,” Cora said. “He’s doing his work, so he should be OK when he gets here. … I don’t know where he’s doing it, but he’s sending videos and all that. He’s doing work. He’s putting work in right now.”
On WEEI, Cora said that Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to pitch two innings in a simulated game today. He also said that center field prospect Jarren Duran will likely start in the Red Sox’ spring training opener on Sunday against the Twins.
The Red Sox announced that spring training tickets for all 15 of their home games at JetBlue Park have already been sold out after going on sale at noon on Friday, marking the 10th consecutive season that they’ve sold out all their spring home games since the park opened in 2012. This spring’s games will operate at 24% of normal capacity due to the pandemic.
Christian Vázquez, suddenly, is now the longesttenured member of the Red Sox organization. And as he enters his 30s, the catcher seems to be doing everything in his power to play as long as he can.
Vázquez was a workhorse this winter. He said Friday that he lost 15 pounds in preparation for this season as he received help from a nutritionist to eat better. Alex Cora said he built a gym in his house, and the manager recently claimed that Vázquez is in the best shape of his life.
“I’m lighter, I feel better, and I’m moving better behind the plate,” Vázquez said. “I feel 10 years younger. It feels good.”
The shape Vázquez is in was clearly evident to Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers when he visited the catcher during the offseason. “There’s nobody who invested more in their career than Christian Vázquez this offseason,” Hyers said. “He did everything you’re supposed to do and more. When I went down to visit him, I was just like, ‘Wow, this guy is dedicated.’ ”
There’s certainly a reason behind it. Vázquez has emerged as one of the most complete catchers in the game since his breakout season offensively in 2019 as he’s become the Red Sox’ primary catcher. There’s inherent responsibility that comes with that, and even more so as a leader in the clubhouse, the longest-tenured member after being drafted in 2008.
Vázquez will again be the Red Sox’ primary catcher this season, with Kevin Plawecki returning to be his backup, but it’s not yet clear how many games he’ll play behind the plate. In 2019, he started 103 games at catcher and then 42 of last season’s 60 games. Cora said there’s a good chance Vázquez will be behind the plate for the majority of games to start the season, and 15 pounds slimmer, they’re hoping that will help him stay strong throughout a long year.
“We’re going to see,” Cora said. “He feels he’s at an age where he needs to make adjustments bodywise, there’s a reason behind that. Hopefully he can feel fresh going into August, September and what we’re trying to accomplish, so hopefully it works out. …
“The next step is just lead the staff. That’s what we want. We love the whole player, we love the package. But at the end of the day, we want him to be a leader back there. He’s been in this organization for a while. … We just have to make sure we take care of him behind the plate. Like I said, we want the best version of Christian Vázquez and I think we have a pretty good chance to see it this year.”
That includes offensively, where he’s turned a corner over the last two seasons. Vázquez has long been viewed as one of the best defensive catchers in the game, but the Red Sox are excited about what a slimmed down, experienced and motivated Vázquez can do with his bat this season.
After batting .276 and blasting a career-high 23 homers with 72 RBI in 2019, Vázquez started hot last year — four homers in his first five games — before slowing down in the middle of the season and finishing strong. Those inconsistencies can be attributed to the strange, shortened season, but Hyers thinks he can make significant improvements, including hitting lefties better. He was .236 against southpaws last season, compared to .305 against righties. Hyers also wants him to improve with runners in scoring position after driving in 18 runs in 51 plate appearances.
“He left a lot of RBIs out there that … it wasn’t that he couldn’t do it, I just think that sometimes he was too aggressive and sometimes he expanded the zone and he wanted it too bad instead of allowing the game to come to him,” Hyers said. “He went out there and tried to make something happen, and I think that got him in some trouble in that period where he went cold.”
But Vázquez has certainly passed the test early in camp. It’s no longer a whatif with the catcher, instead he enters this season with big expectations, and his actions this winter reflect that he understands that.
“He’s slimmed up and the ball’s jumping further off his bat, so it looks a little more bouncy and loose,” Hyers said. “When you say he lost some weight, it’s not bad. He looks good physically and he just looks like a good-looking athlete and to me, he didn’t lose like the muscle mass and the strength level is really good. He’s a big part of this club, he makes a lot of things happen. Offensively, he’s one of the better offensive catchers in the league and we expect a lot from him and I know he expects a lot from himself.
“As the hitting coach, he’s one of the guys at the top that I’m wanting to see in spring training and excited to see some of the things he worked on to see how it works here in these games coming up.”