It’s a shotgun start for Bruins
The last time the Bruins opened a training camp without Zdeno Chara, Harry Sinden was still calling the shots on Causeway Street, the NHL salary cap was in its infancy and Alexei Zhamnov was the club’s big offseason signing.
But when the B’s gathered at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday morning for the start of 2021 workouts, Chara was in our nation’s capital, hoping to put a coda on a Hall of Fame career to match Tom Brady’s in Tampa Bay. Torey Krug, meanwhile, is in St. Louis, too rich for the Bruins’ cap constraints. Just exactly who fills those holes is still up for debate, and the B’s have just a 10-day training camp and zero preseason games before opening night in New Jersey on Jan. 14.
There will be trial and error. And coach Bruce Cassidy freely conceded that these important evaluations will continue into the regular season. Considering that the season is only 56 games and a fast start is more important than ever, this is not an ideal situation.
In Monday’s opening sessions, Cassidy tried Jeremy Lauzon on the top pair with Charlie McAvoy, with Jakub Zboril taking some turns with McAvoy. On the projected second pair, Matt Grzelcyk, occasionally replaced by John Moore, skated in the second group with Brandon Carlo. Urho Vaakanainen and Nick Wolff alternated skating with Connor Clifton while comeback-minded Kevan Miller (“Looks great,” said Cassidy) took turns with Jack Ahcan skating with Steven Kampfer.
Cassidy needs to see something more than 3-on-3 drills to figure it all out.
“They have to play in true, honest, real NHL, regular-season (games),” said Cassidy.
Of the young players vying for roles in the regular six-pack of defensemen, Lauzon appears to be the leader in the clubhouse. He not only has more of an NHL track record than Zboril and Vaakanainen, he best replicates what Chara could bring. No, he’s not 6-foot-9 and he won’t be the most feared defender of his generation. But he can and will be physical, he’s got a defense-first mentality and the hope is that the move to his natural left side will elevate his game even higher than it was last year when he came up from Providence for good in January. Whether he’s a guy who can handle top lines every night will be determined, but he’s earned at least some modicum of trust with Cassidy.
“Lauzon’s been there. Every time we’ve called him in the past and he’s come in and played well for us,” said Cassidy. “I think the first time was when Z hurt himself in Colorado (two years ago) and he played well for us. And we were down some guys, I think Krug was recovering from surgery. And we relied on him to play against good players in a shutdown role and he responded well. Last year we brought him up and it was a little bit of a different role. We needed him to be hard and to give us some presence and he did that well. Playoffs, he wasn’t as clean as he was when he came up earlier in the year. But nobody was, so we’re not going to hold that against him. This is the opportunity in front of him and he has to realize we’re starting right away and we don’t get a lot of lead time in this. So that’s the challenge for him if he’s going to play against good players.”
Cassidy hopes that the fact Zboril has been playing in the Czech Republic will serve to offset, at least in part, the fact that he does not have the benefit of an exhibition season. Perhaps he could make for a rugged third pair with Miller or Clifton? We shall see. Moore, who started slowly last year following shoulder surgery, is healthy again and could be in that third pair mix, too. One experiment that could be attempted is seeing whether Clifton could play on the left side, said Cassidy, though the lack of preseason games may hinder that investigation.
So there is no shortage of possible D combinations. Finding the right fit is the challenge for Cassidy and assistant Kevin Dean. Seizing the opportunity is up to the kids. No one has to replace Zdeno Chara. But if the B’s are to make this gamble pay off, then one or two of youngsters has to repay B’s management for the faith its shown in them.
“You can’t just replace a future Hall of Famer, a guy that’s given his heart and soul to the Bruins,” said Cassidy of Chara. “But we also feel we have young guys who are ready to step up. Only putting them in the lineup and putting them in positions of responsibility will determine that.”
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