After multiple stints up in NHL ranks, Urho Vaakanainen showing mettle need to stick with Boston

Even from our perch high above the TD Garden ice, Urho Vaakanainen’s disappointment was easy to glean as he slowly glided over to the sin bin on Saturday afternoon. 

A tripping call against the 23-year-old defenseman stood as one of the few faults in an otherwise strong night on Boston’s blue line. But the infraction came at a critical time, putting Boston on the PK in the midst of a 3-3 deadlock with Nashville late in the third period. 

During previous stints up in the NHL ranks, such a bump in the road could have potentially torpedoed the young blueliner’s budding confidence — or prompted Bruce Cassidy to pull the plug on his minutes for the remainder of the contest.

But after the Bruins negated the penalty, Vaakanainen was right back out on the ice — helping to patch up a shorthanded B’s D corps still without both Matt Grzelcyk and Connor Clifton (both in COVID protocols).

Cassidy’s faith in Vaakanainen was rewarded once the contest dragged into overtime. 

Taylor Hall might have been the hero on Saturday with his game-ending netfront tally just 1:41 into the extra period — but it was Vaakanainen who jumpstarted the sequence from Boston’s end of the ice. 

Sensing a brief 2-on-1 opportunity with Vaakanainen standing as the next layer of defense in front of Linus Ullmark, Tanner Jeannot attempted to hit Mikael Granlund in stride — only for Vaakanainen to intercept the feed and push the puck out of high-danger ice.

Vaakanainen’s processing ability and puck-moving prowess — the attributes that prompted Boston to scoop him up with the 18th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft — were put on full display, with the Finnish product feeding the puck over to Hall in transition and sparking the sequence that ended the hard-fought contest.

It was just the latest in an extended stretch of solid play from Vaakanainen — who, like Jakub Zboril before him — seems to be finally putting it all together after repeated attempts to stick up with Boston.

“He’s a harder defender,” Cassidy said last week of some of Vaakanainen’s strides this season. “Some of that is maturity and some of it is getting to know the league — that you have to come ready to play every night, that there’s not one player out there that’s going to let you off the hook. So you better be dug in and play with urgency. 

“Vaak can skate a lot of pucks out of trouble. He’s got good feet, he can separate. He has the ability to do that. We just have to instill some habits in him and some confidence.”

Vaakanainen’s most recent promotion up to the NHL was more out of necessity than anything else — pressed into service after another COVID surge put Derek Forbort, Clifton and Grzelcyk on the shelf in quick succession. 

Unlike in previous years where Vaakanainen was relegated to a complimentary, third-pairing role — the absence of both Grzelcyk and Forbort on the left side prompted Cassidy to drop the up-and-down D-man into a top-pairing spot next to Charlie McAvoy. 

And while the Bruins’ vision circa 2017 of a Vaakanainen-McAvoy tandem anchoring the B’s blue line hasn’t exactly come to full fruition — the returns in that duo’s limited time together have been very encouraging so far in 2022. 

Through the 30:04 of 5v5 ice time that the Vaakanainen-McAvoy pairing has logged so far this season, the Bruins have held the edge in:

Shot attempts: 37-17
Shots on goal: 30-11
Goals scored: 2-1*
Scoring chances: 21-8
High-danger scoring chances: 8-1

*The lone goal relinquished by that pairing was a complete defensive breakdown against the Flyers on Thursday, but it was more a byproduct of an uncharacteristic D-zone gamble by McAvoy that generated a 2-on-1 chance. 

Granted, sticking most defensemen with a partner of McAvoy’s caliber will usually generate strong puck-possession metrics. But Vaakanainen’s own individual play has also passed the eye test.

Vaakanainen — who has notched four assists over five games with Boston this season — has also logged 20+ minutes of ice time in each of his last three games, including 9:52 of PK reps over that stretch. 

Of course, with Clifton back on the ice Monday morning at Warrior Ice Arena and Grzelcyk presumably not far behind — it remains to be seen how exactly the chips fall when it comes to Vaakanainen and the rest of Boston’s D corps.

As good as Grzelcyk-McAvoy has been for years now, you wonder if Vaakanainen’s emergence could allow Cassidy to deploy Grzelcyk further down the lineup in order to strengthen another pairing. Or perhaps Vaakanainen (playing on the right side) could battle with Clifton for reps on the third pairing. 

Again, much like the current state of Boston’s goalie rotation, it’s good problem to have. 

"He's a good player,” Cassidy said of Vaakanainen. “He's just got to understand it's an every-night business at this level. We certainly will allow guys to make mistakes and understand their youth. I mean, we've done it over the years with a lot of guys that are mainstays now from McAvoy, Grzelcyk, (Brandon) Carlo, (David) Pastrnak. Jake (DeBrusk) only spent one year in Providence and has worked his way through. So there's a number of different guys that have all done it and he'll be another one that if he can outplay his competition, then he'll get that opportunity.

“But it's nice to see him step in and do well. Because we're kind of at that point where you're wondering after a few years — he's not a kid anymore where he's a first-year pro. He's seen it. Time to start doing it and an opportunity arose and some guys kick the door down. Other guys kind of gently step through it. I think he's somewhere in between there and he's doing a good job. He's going to make it a difficult decision when we're 100 percent healthy and that's what we want as an organization and you need that circle of life for those young guys to come in.

Boston’s revamped top-six unit, a rejuvenated fourth line and tighter play in net have been the primary conduits that have sparked the B’s new-year resurgence.

But with the B’s defense running on fumes for most of the last week, it’s been contributors like Vaakanainen that have helped play a major role in Boston’s continued rise up in the standings. 

"It's really good to see a guy come in and play like he belongs right off the bat,” Hall said of Vaakanainen. “That speaks to probably his offseason training and his development as a player throughout the last couple of years. 

"And a guy that comes into the lineup and plays to the best of his abilities — that's all you can really ask for is to be the best version of you. He can see the ice. He's a really good penalty killer. He's physical when he needs to be and it's really good to see guys like that — especially young guys come into the lineup. He and (Oskar Steen) have fit in seamlessly and that's what you need as the season goes on. You need depth, you need guys that can come in and give you a jolt whenever they're in.” 

Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick.