Slowly but surely, Ryan Donato starting to reward Bruins in offensive zone taken at BSJ Headquarters (Bruins)

Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images

Bruins

Slowly but surely, Ryan Donato starting to reward Bruins in offensive zone

By Conor Ryan

Dec 26, 2018 • 1:20 pm

0comment-bubble

Wielding a heavy, accurate shot, you’d think Ryan Donato already has plenty of tools in his arsenal when the Bruins break into the offensive zone.

And while the 22-year-old winger spent time down in the AHL earlier this season to finetune his play away from the puck, Bruce Cassidy has harped on the need for Donato to also respect the finer details of his game when he does have the biscuit on his stick.

Much like Frank Vatrano — a promising winger with an NHL-ready release — Donato has the ability to impact a game thanks to the tangible offensive tools he already possessed when he broke into the NHL.

But as evidenced by Vatrano — who saw his playing time dwindle last season prior to a February trade due to poor shot selection and inconsistent play off the puck — Donato can’t just be a one-trick pony when he gets a look in the offensive zone.

There weren’t plenty of positives to take away from Sunday’s 5-3 loss against the Hurricanes, but Donato’s play certainly stood out on Boston’s third line with Colby Cave and David Backes.

For the first time in his brief NHL career, Donato posted his first multi-goal performance — cashing in on the power play in the first period before rifling home his fifth goal of the year in the closing minutes of the second stanza.

On a night in which Boston’s top-six corps was largely neutralized, Donato was a bright spot in the B’s possession game — ranking second on the club during 5v5 play with a Corsi For Percentage of 57.89.

While they were saddled with a goal against, the Bruins did hold an edge in attempts (11-8) and shots for (7-4) during the 8:54 of 5v5 TOI in which both Donato and Backes were out on the ice together — a nice showing against a Carolina club that leads in the league in shots for per game at 37.5.

But looking past the final stat sheet, it was more of the manner in which Donato operated in the offensive zone that served as perhaps the best silver lining from an otherwise miserable outing.

Donato’s opening tally relied an awful lot on puck luck, but the end result was still a net positive in Cassidy’s eyes.

Serving the net-front role on Boston’s top power-play unit, Donato mucked up the crease following a point shot from Torey Krug — with the puck bouncing by Donato’s stick and ricocheting off 'Canes defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk before sailing into the net.




An unconventional goal, for sure, but an encouraging step for Donato, who has largely failed to cash in up front for the B’s — with his shot attempts coming an average of 29 feet away from the net.


(David) Krejci






Donato’s second goal was more in line with what we’ve come to expect from Donato, with the winger sniping one past
Petr Mrazek
at 16:05 in the second.




While
Justin Faulk
picked up Donato near the right circle, the B’s forward shifted his point of attack with a quick angle adjustment to create a shooting lane — and subsequent goal.




The on-the-fly readjustment was another positive development for Donato, who has seen 15 of his 68 shot attempts on the season fail to make it through the opposing team’s goal.


"Good for him and that's his bread and butter, his shot, if he can get it off,” Cassidy said. “And that's been part of the challenge for him too. If you've noticed, he's been getting a lot of shots blocked with sticks by defensemen. They're smarter up at this level and they've got longer sticks and better sticks.


“He's got to learn to camouflage or get his shot off without being blocked in traffic and by the defender and by the goalie. The second goal was a real good example of that and hopefully, that's a good learning experience for him."


As Boston looks to sort out its top six with
Jake DeBrusk
likely back in the fold on Thursday, the Bruins will need to count on Donato to continue to fine-tune his overall game — both in order to stay in the lineup, as well turn the corner from offensive spark plug into a versatile scoring winger.


“
Those offensive guys when they buy in, they put as much effort into keeping the puck out of their net as they do putting it in the net, then I think you’ve got something,” Cassidy said last week at Warrior Ice Arena. “That’s part of maturity. We’ve seen that with
David Pastrnak, (Danton) Heinen
takes a lot of pride in it, Jake’s turned a corner there. Ryan is going through a lot of what they went through. His details are better, but we’re still working on it.”

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
0
Show comments for this article