The Bruins’ roster is in line for an overhaul over the next couple of days — and not just because of some incoming outside help.
While Ondrej Kase (and potentially others?) are on the way for the Bruins, a couple of regulars in Boston’s lineup have already been looking over their shoulders for weeks now — as the franchise’s emphasis on internal competition has continued to generate positive results on the ice.
Those positive results have been a byproduct of too many NHLers fighting for too few open spots on Boston’s roster — with the arrival of Kase setting the stage for Danton Heinen, Anders Bjork and Karson Kuhlman to scrap for the two vacancies on Charlie Coyle’s line.
Even if Don Sweeney doesn’t add reinforcements on the blue line ahead of Monday’s deadline, Boston’s D corps is also poised to be packed to the brim.
Jeremy Lauzon has stabilized Boston’s third D pairing next to Matt Grzelcyk, but there are others waiting in the wings. John Moore — still with three more years remaining on his contract — has only appeared in three games since the start of February. Connor Clifton, sidelined since Dec. 29 due to an upper-body injury, is currently down in Providence on an LTI conditioning loan, but could rejoin the NHL ranks in short order.
Kevan Miller’s status still remains up in the air as he continues to recover from a pair of knee surgeries, but Sweeney did not rule out his return this season when asked on Friday.
Given the amount of bodies available on the blue line, Sweeney may not have to expend additional trade chips in order to bolster an area of strength on this roster. That level of depth can go a long way in terms of dictating the necessary needs ahead of the deadline, but the play of Lauzon might be the biggest deterrent toward any additional help joining Boston's D corps down the stretch.
Lauzon may not have factored into the scoresheet in Friday's 4-3 comeback victory over the Flames, but the 22-year-old defenseman did enough of the little things that can go a long way in a one-goal contest.
The second period up at the Scotiabank Saddledome was largely a quieted affair, at least when compared to an opening 20 minutes that featured six total goals, including four tallies in the opening 3:23 of action. But Lauzon provided one of the few highlights of the middle frame when he squared up with Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk, taking the Flames' top scoring off the ice for five minutes — even if he received his fair share of punishment off of a flurry of quick jabs to the face.
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"I think that's what he does," Bruce Cassidy said of Lauzon's willingness to play physical. "He's willing to drop the gloves if he has to. Listen, he's by no way a heavyweight in this league. Who knows where it will go from here. But at the end of the day, he'll answer the bell. The shot blocks, he's willing to do that. Sometimes they hit ya, sometimes they don't. The physical part, we talked about below the goal line. He missed a guy, the second period, he got beat off the wall down low, so he's upset about that. He takes a lot of pride in that. He knows it's his bread and butter and they got a good scoring chance — I think they hit the post. So after that, I think he took that to heart and got back to his game."
Of Lauzon's 17:41 of ice time logged on Saturday, 2:07 was spent on Boston's penalty-kill unit, which went a perfect 2-for-2 on the night. With Boston clinging to its one-goal lead in the third period, Lauzon made one of the top special-team plays of the evening, skating in front of a one-time bomb from Dillon Dube and redirecting the puck out of danger thanks to a painful block.
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Negating scoring chances has been a theme for Lauzon since his latest call-up with Boston back in late January, with his 5v5 expected goals rate per 60 minutes rate of 1.44 leading all Bruins blueliners.
(For Reference: Expected goals accounts for both shot quantity and quality by factoring in multiple shot factors, including the type of shot, distance from the net, angle, 5v5, power play, penalty kill, etc. As such, a player with a low expected goals against means that opposing teams aren’t generating good looks when he’s out on the ice).
Lauzon's ability to throw his weight around and snuff out scoring chances in Grade-A areas around Boston's net has made a sizable impact on an already stout defense, with opposing shot rates drying up whenever the young defenseman has hopped over the boards this season.
(For reference on Micah Blake McCurdy’s individual impact charts via Hockey Viz — On the offensive side of things, you’d want to see a player providing positive numbers — with the red blobs signifying where the team is generating a majority of their shots from whenever said player is on the ice. Defensively, negative numbers are a sign that a team is snuffing out opposing scoring chances whenever said player is on the ice. As such, the blue blobs represent where the opposition’s shots aren’t regularly coming from.)
As you can see above, opposing shot rates all over the quality areas of the ice (low slot, crease) are shrouded in blue (signifying lower than average) when Lauzon has been on the ice.
He may not be all that flashy, but when you have plenty of talent up front and three established puck movers in Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy and Grzelcyk already dictating the pace from the blue line — Lauzon's simple but heavy game stands as a welcome addition to a Bruins' D corps looking for some stability near the bottom of the roster.
At the time, Lauzon was only viewed as a mid-season replacement when he was beckoned from Providence back in January. But based on the way he's been playing, the promising blueliner shouldn't see the AHL ranks any time soon.