The Boston Bruins brought back a familiar face from Providence on Wednesday morning, as the club announced Ryan Donato was recalled from the AHL after a 10-day stretch with the Baby B’s.
Donato rotated in on the second line during Wednesday’s morning skate, alternating rushes with Danton Heinen on the left wing.
Entering the 2018-19 season with aspirations of 20-plus goals and a top-six role, Donato slumped out of the gate — only tallying one goal (on the power play) through 11 games before getting sent down to Providence.
Now back in the fold, Donato will look to get back on track and help out a shorthanded B’s club in desperate need of a spark up front.
Here are four takeaways from Donato’s return to the Black and Gold:
Donato working on the finer details
In the days before his reassignment, Donato seemed to be in limbo — straying away from his usual playing style but failing to display any semblance of a consistent "B" game that could keep him afloat with the big club, even with his slumping offensive numbers.
Over his final five games with the Bruins before getting sent down, Donato only averaged 11:10 TOI, including just 6:40 in five-on-five TOI during his last game against the Hurricanes on Oct. 30.
Usually sheltered on a line with some 200-foot-skaters or in front on the power play, Donato worked on rounding out his overall game down in Providence, including a couple of reps on the penalty kill.
“Just playing in every situation," Donato said. "Penalty kill, power play. D-zone draws. Just everything. Now that I have that confidence that I’m a full 200-foot player and I have the abilities to be a 200-foot player, I know I can carry it into this level and hopefully, I have the opportunity to do those things here.”
Positioning will be a key determinant of how much Donato soaked up down in the AHL, both in the D zone and down the other end of the ice — where Donato should capitalize with his elite shot.
Even with his scoring prowess, Donato didn’t necessarily put himself in the best spots to pepper the opposing net — with his 19 shots on goal this season coming from an average distance of 32.16 feet, close to three feet farther from the league average.
With added awareness to where he needs to be on the ice,
Bruce Cassidy
hopes that adhering to the little details of hockey will help the rest of Donato’s game fall into place.
“He said, ‘
"Well, 95 percent of the game is without the puck, I’m learning that. I said, ‘That is for the good players. It's about 98 percent for everyone else.’ That’s a big part of it, you have to understand that so when he gets his chance to go in, whether that’s tomorrow or the next day … I think he’ll be a better player when he goes in."
The winger got rolling offensively
Facing some lighter competition, along with a heavier workload, put Donato back on track, with the winger scoring five goals and adding four assists over his name games in the AHL.
While the AHL allows young players to hone their craft and work on the finer details of their game, it’s also a chance for streaky players like Donato to build some confidence and momentum by producing up front.
“It’s hard to play in the league as it is,” Cassidy said. “It’s hard to play in the league if you’re doubting yourself. I think he’s a confident kid, always has been, but it probably in the back of the mind, he’s worrying about scoring, because he did it last year. That can help too, knowing that you have here, it’s just a matter of finding those details that you need to get back to getting those opportunities. When he goes back in, you hope he’s a better player for it, otherwise, we failed in our development.”
Donato’s place in the lineup is not guaranteed
It would seem probable that
Anders Bjork
is in line for a trip down to the AHL to get on track, with the winger limited to just three points all year — with his last coming off an assist back on Nov. 11.
In Monday’s loss against Toronto, Bjork logged just 9:20 of ice time with zero shots on goal in his return after being scratched for a pair of games. When he was out on the ice, he w
as whistled for a trip on
Tyler Ennis
in the closing minutes of the second period that led to the eventual game-winning goal from
Josh Leivo
.
“We’ll have to discuss that this afternoon with what the rest of the lineup looks like,” Cassidy said. “Obviously does
Sean
Kuraly
go back? If not, who plays center, so there’s a few things to look at it. Is it Ryan’s time to go? His offense versus the kind of lineup that we’ve had where we’ve low-scoring games where guys have done their job away from the puck. So there’s a little bit of that to be considered.”
Donato sporting some battle scars from tenure with Providence
Donato might return to Boston with some extra skills, but he left quite a few teeth back in Providence.
Donato spent close to five hours in the dentist following a mishap during a P-Bruins practice, with the winger taking a puck to the mouth off of a shot from
Mark McNeil
.
“I passed it to McNeil from the corner and was going to the net and he’s got a rocket of a shot and he tried to go short side high,” Donato said. “I was going right to the post from the corner and (
Dan Vladar
bumped it right off his blocker straight into my mouth. Lost five teeth, 25 stitches, could have been a lot worse.”
