The Bruins had a decision to make ahead of Monday’s practice — just hours after getting dealt a bad hand with the news of Torey Krug’s upper-body injury.
The Bruins did have options when the time came to determine the next man up in the organization’s blue-line prospect pipeline, but who was it going to be?
How about Urho Vaakanainen — Boston’s de-facto top D-man prospect mired in an early-season slump with Providence? Maybe Jeremy Lauzon? Or perhaps this would be another window for Jakub Zboril to show some of the promise that made him a first-round pick back in 2015.?
“As far as young guys go, we know there’s three call-up guys that we’ve used that have had different levels of success,” Bruce Cassidy said of the current state of Boston’s blue line down in Providence. (Alex) Petrovic has played in the league, so he’s more of a guy that, in case we run into problems in the right side with some of our bigger bodies. … But they’re going to get their opportunity and tomorrow will be Day 1 for one of them.”
Indeed, with Krug out for at least a couple of games, another young skater is going to get a starting nod on Tuesday against the Panthers — with Vaakanainen getting the green light from the B’s brass.
It’s a move that few would argue with, considering the 20-year-old defenseman managed to crack the NHL roster out of training camp last year and likely would have stuck around a bit more had it not been for injuries.
And yet, despite all of the potential that the 2017 first-rounder showcased last season, the strong play that Vaakanainen put forth during World Juniors and AHL competition hasn’t exactly translated over to this current campaign with the Baby B’s.
While Cassidy noted that Vaakanainen’s play has stabilized some over the last couple of weeks, the Finnish defenseman was slow out the gate in his second full AHL campaign — limited to just two points (a pair of assists) over 15 games. But more concerning than the lack of consistent offensive contributions were the lapses in defensive coverage that haven't usually ailed the young defenseman.
“I think early on he was getting stuck wide,” Cassidy said of Vaakanainen's struggles. “I don’t know if that’s a European-sized rink issue or the way they played over there, but that was an issue early on. Some goals against, he was getting beat to the middle … We’ve got to make sure that’s buttoned up."
Even with a slew of injuries in 2018-19, one would think that Vaakanainen was already penciled in to be the next man up in case of injury for this campaign, but a sluggish training camp and preseason buried him on the depth chart, with Zboril standing as the final blue-line prospect to eventually get sent down to the AHL in September.
Following a matchup against the Flyers back on September 23, Cassidy noted that Vaakanainen's decision making and skating — two expected strengths of his game — left much to be desired.
"I don’t think he skated well enough to skate by people, to break out pucks," Cassidy said. "One of his strengths is his foot speed, and his defending with his foot speed. He got beat wide once tonight, that’s not typically his game, he’s pretty good that way. So, I thought his feet weren’t engaged tonight enough in the game. ... I thought Zboril did a pretty good job that way, breaking out, getting up ice, supporting the rush. Not as much for Vaak tonight."
Some of those in-game faults are just part of the road bumps that every young player goes through on the road to the NHL. But Cassidy had a bone to pick with much more than just Vaakanainen's play on the ice.
With Boston in the midst of a three-game losing skid, the B's bench boss ran a frantic, intense practice Monday morning at Warrior Ice Arena — a competitive session that checked off all of the boxes that Cassidy wanted to set in the span of just 32 efficient minutes. More often than not, NHL practices don't linger much more than 35-40 minutes on the heaviest days, while AHL franchises more centered on development can often practice for an hour or more.
Vaakanainen is far from the only one guilty of this, but Cassidy did note that the youngster's practice habits were lackluster last year, especially when it came to warming up ahead of drills.
"I saw a guy that didn’t practice well last year, to be honest with you," Cassidy said. "He needed to turn up the urgency at the NHL level. Practices are half-hour, 40 minutes. This is not abnormal for young guys … Maybe the first 20 minutes, they get warmed up, whereas that’s expected of them to get warmed up on their own and be ready to go when the puck drops so we can get our work done and get out of here. I’ve heard that there’s been improvement. Today, he looked fine in practice, so he seems to have picked that part up.”
Much like his practice habits, Vaakanainen's play on the ice has also appeared to have turned the corner in recent weeks down in the AHL. Given that Krug hasn't entirely been ruled out for the weekend, Vaakanainen's most recent stint up in the NHL might only last a game or two. But even with a small sample size, Vaakanainen is looking to do whatever he can to make it hard for the top brass to send him back down.
"I've been defending well, skating well, found the flow in my game. It's been a good two, three weeks, playing well," Vaakanainen said. "I feel good right now. ... When you get a chance, you're gonna take it. I haven't been thinking about it too much. I don't want to stress myself if someone gets injured or if I get called up. I just want to be myself."