What’s in store for post-pandemic convenience?
This viral pandemic has forced a multitude of changes in our behavior, from the way we greet each other to how we work and study.
The common thread in these alterations to our prior daily habits can be capsulized in one word – distance.
Remote has taken control of our lives.
While online shopping had already become commonplace, it’s exploded in the year since we’ve been dealing with COVID-19.
It’s even crept into the way we purchase alcoholic beverages. That’s an inescapable fact according to state Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who oversees the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
That agency indicated that coronavirus-spurred, directto-consumer alcohol deliveries have increased threefold, despite the fact that package stores — deemed essential — remained open for business.
In Greater Boston, that facilitator market is dominated by Drizly, a company started by two Boston College students in 2013 that ride-hailing and delivery service Uber purchased for $1.1 billion last month. Jen Whitman, a spokesperson for Drizly, said Goldberg’s projections track with the company’s own figures.
Thanks to what Goldberg described as the tireless work of the agency’s inspectors to “vet direct shipment companies, prevent unlawful third-party deliveries, and collect excise taxes,” the ABCC remains on track to generate $5.1 million in direct revenue in fiscal year 2022, matching the previous fiscal year’s total.
That’s despite the disclosure that about 13% of alcohol-license holders, including manufacturers and wholesalers, have not renewed for 2021.
It will be interesting to see if the convenience of purchasing groceries, meals — and spirits — remotely remains the new normal once this pandemic no longer holds us hostage.
JAck Studnicka‘s desire to play in the National Hockey League right now is obvious. When it looked like the only route to a big league roster spot was to play the wing, the lifelong centerman gladly accepted the challenge if that was going to get him to where he wanted to go.
The results were mixed. He did score the B’s first five-on-five goal of the season, but he wasn’t always a visible guy on the ice. Then absences hit the B’s solid center corps, first an injury to David Krejci and then on Wednesday Charlie Coyle was placed on the COVID protocol (Coyle was subsequently taken off the list and was back in the lineup on Friday).
That has allowed Studnicka to play the pivot and, as one might expect, Studnicka has looked more like a guy who knows his
position more intuitively than when he was on the wing. He’s been somewhat snake-bitten, but he’s also been around the net a lot more than he had been at wing.
“Natural, I guess, is the word I’d use,” said Studnicka on Friday. “It just feels like it’s something I’ve been doing for 20 years. I’m definitely a little more comfortable, less thinking, less trying to learn new things. But I just feel more natural there and it’s been good so far.”
He had played well enough at center with Krejci out for coach Bruce Cassidy to re-imagine how his fourth line might look when Krejci returned to the lineup. He’d been planning to move Sean Kuraly over to left wing and plop Studnicka in between Kuraly and right wing Chris Wagner.
That plan, of course, went out the window when Coyle was placed on the COVID protocol list prior to Wednesday’s game. Cassidy conceded that Studnicka may not be perfect for a fourthline role, but the coach’s willingness to move those pieces around speaks to the level of improvement that Studnicka displayed by moving to the middle. Whether he’s ready for full-time
NHL duty at center is still to be determined, but Cassidy has seen enough to give him that look now.
With the return of Coyle, Studnicka was between right wing Wagner and left wing Anders Bjork in Friday’s return match against the Capitals, making Kuraly the surprise scratch.
That made Studnicka the only center/faceoff man on the fourth line. Speaking in the morning before any of the changes were known, Studnicka expressed confidence in any situation.
“I think I’m a pretty versatile hockey player where I think I can be slotted in the lineup wherever,” said Studnicka. “If I ever get a chance to play with those guys, it’s pretty obvious how they like to play, a straight line, simple game, good defensively. They have skill, too. I would definitely feel comfortable with any kind of wing, in any role.”
For Friday’s game, Cassidy reunited the heavy line with Coyle in between Trent Frederic and Craig Smith. Jake DeBrusk moved up to play with Krejci and Nick Ritchie.
Playing against a tough, physical and highly skilled team like the Washington Capitals as he did on Wednesday and again on Friday gave Studnicka a pretty good litmus test of what he can expect as an NHL centerman.
“Firsthand, they’re a tough
team to play against,” said Studnicka. “It was definitely a good learning experience for me the other night and I’ll probably feel more comfortable (Friday). I know the style that they like to play. There’s not a lot of room out there, so I have to make some strong plays, especially in the neutral zone. They’re a strong, heavy team and it was good for me to play against them.”
Frederic scratching surface of his offense
Frederic, who is staying put at
wing, for now at least, is gaining notoriety around the league as an agitator, a reputation burnished by his battles with Alex Ovechkin on Wednesday. And Cassidy has loved his output in that realm of the game. But the coach thinks there’s a lot of room for growth from Frederic in his offensive game, too.
“He’s gone out and been hard on certain players and annoyed them. They just happen to be high-end guys. And he’s done it within the rules of the law. So that part of it is always an asset if you can get good players off their game and then still play yours and not spend the night in the box. I think he’s done a really good job with that. He’s finished checks clean,” said Cassidy. “As for the offensive part of it, I think he was looking to make plays rather than shoot the puck or play north-south. Some of that is to do with he’s been a center and we put him on the wing. As a centerman, you’re trying to get pucks to your wingers. As a winger, you’re getting pucks in different places, especially on the rush and you’re kind of that last-touch guy before it goes to the net. And he was trying to make that extra play. I think that’s been some of the learning curve for him, having a shot mentality. Then down low, protecting it and identifying whether they’re in a zone coverage or a man-to-man and do I have a little more time if I beat my guy or does it have to be on and off my stick because they flood, so to speak. He’s learning that part of the game at the NHL level, what he can get away with, what kind of power moves he can use to get to the net and how hard you have to shoot to get the puck on net a lot of times. If a goalie is set and seeing it, it doesn’t matter how good a shot it is, he’s still going to save it. I think he’s learning that, the quickness of the release is just as important as how hard your shot is at times.”
Odds and ends
In Thursday’s practice, Cassidy mixed up a couple of defensive pairings, putting Urho Vaakanainen with newcomer Jarred Tinordi and pairing Connor Clifton and Steven Kampfer, but he decided to go back with the Clifton-Tinordi pairing that played together in Tinordi’s debut on Wednesday. …
The Bruins’ first game for which fans will be allowed is on March 23.
Due to the small capacity limit (12% of the usual 17,565) the Bruins announced that season-ticket holders, Game Plan holders and Boston Garden Society members will receive priority access to tickets. Fans interested should visit https://www.nhl.com/bruins/tickets.