‘We were all speechless’
Cassidy wanted players to watch Beach interview as a team
When TSN last week aired its Kyle Beach interview that rocked the hockey world to its core, the Bruins were an hour away from puck drop in Sunrise, Florida. After the game, they hopped on a charter flight to Carolina.
The players and coaches caught bits and pieces of the interview — it was impossible to ignore it — but when coach Bruce Cassidy was able to see it in its entirety after the team arrived home, he decided that the situation called for more focused attention.
He suggested to Patrice Bergeron that the players watch the interview as a team and the captain agreed.
“I thought it was very powerful and I thought the players could benefit from it,” said Cassidy on Wednesday. “For me, there’s a lot that goes into it, but the most important thing was here’s a young guy, and for people with kids, they go away to college, they go away to play junior hockey, they go to play pro, whatever. And you expect them to be in a safe environment. That’s what you’d want as a parent… At the end of the day, there’s a lot of people that let this kid down. So that’s how I took it.
“I talked to Bergy and I said I thought it would be good for the group to watch it. I don’t want to force it on them, either. Some stuff as a coach, you have to let players decide. There’s other non-negotiables. So on this one I highly recommended he get the guys together and watch it. And he agreed. So hopefully something good comes of it when they see that and how they’re going to treat their own as well.
“That’s their perspective, in their room. How do the players take care of each other? Because, like I said, there’s a lot of people who failed Kyle and some of the players in Chicago have to be included in that, (when) at the time they could have looked after him. So that’s where the angle for them would come from. For me, it’s about senior leadership, coaches, parents and how does that affect you.”
Rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman said he appreciated the effort made by the team’s leadership to get the team together.
“That’s the culture we have here,” said Swayman. “It’s powerful. We all
watched that and we were all speechless afterwards. Obviously, what he went through was unimaginable. We’re so thankful that he had the courage to come out and speak and protect others that could possibly go through that. It was a great call on our leadership group to do that. I know I personally learned a lot and make sure that when you do see something, you speak up up.”
Quick hits
Swayman will get the nod for Thursday’s game against the Red Wings and Linus Ullmark will play Saturday in Toronto.
Because of the B’s spaced out schedule and the fact, that Ullmark has gotten the last two starts, Swayman will be a week between starts and, since the season began on Oct. 16, he’s gotten just three starts.
“Until we get going with the schedule, it’s going to be a challenge for those guys to stay sharp,” said Cassidy.
In a small sample size, Swayman is 1-2 with with a 2.71 save percentage and .893 save percentage.
“He’s been good,” said Cassidy. “Listen, the Philadelphia game (a 6-3 loss), some pucks had eyes. He’d be the first to tell you, he should have made a few stops. But he hasn’t played enough. The Carolina game, we put two in our own net. It’s hard to blame the goalie on those, and I’m not going to. I thought he was good in Carolina, we didn’t score for him. The Dallas game was solid. We got him the goals we needed in the third period. So let’s see where it goes. We haven’t changed our opinion on him. He’s a real good goaltender. He just needs to play some games to build up some game stamina, some game situations, confidence, all of those things. And I think Linus was in the same boat early on. Now he’s played a few more and you’re starting to see him come around.”
Swayman said that, of course, he loves getting the net as much as he can, but believes the way the B’s practice prepare him well for when he does get the chance.
“I’m taking it day-byday. That’s what I’ve learned in pro hockey,” said Swayman. “It’s rare that we get this much time off, so it’s something you want to cherish at the same time and make sure your body is prepared to get back in the game-mode. I think we’ve done a great job with that, conditioning on ice, practices have been 100 percent all out. That’s the culture here.” …
As expected, Bergeron returned to practice on Wednesday after a Tuesday maintenance day…
The Red Wings, looking to finally turn the corner in their rebuild under GM Steve Yzerman, will come into Thursday’s Garden tilt with a 4-4-2 record, but three of their regulation losses have come in Canada, where they have proven to be a different team without leading scorer Tyler Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi, who has 6-3-9 totals in nine games, has chosen not to get the Covid vaccine, preventing him from playing in Canada because of the government’s quarantine requirements. The B’s should get the formidable version of the Wings.