WILMINGTON, Mass. — While the scrimmages in the final days draw the most attention from fans, one of the underrated highlights every year at the Bruins development camp is the variety of skating drills the young prospects are put through.
Those drills were the focus of the first of two sessions in the second day of the camp on Friday. Under the watchful eye of new power skating instructor Besa Tsintsadze, the Bruins sweated through a variety of grueling drills that had them hopping, lunging and contorting themselves on the Ristuccia Arena ice.
"I think the skating part is always interesting because there's a lot of edge work and you're not sure what guys are at what level," said Providence Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, who is running the campalong with assistant general manager Don Sweeney.
"We're going to continue to do that, especially at development camp and throughout the year at Providence with Besa," he added. "I think he's real good at what he does, very energetic guy."
Tsintsadze began working with the players in Providence during last season, and now brings his energetic approach and nifty footwork to the development camp for the first time.
"Everyone brings a different element, and Besa, certainly with his ability to skate, they should sign him," Cassidy joked. "The way he zips around out there is motivation for the players. I like what he does with the guys. He keeps them moving. He mixes in edge work with puck skills work while you're working your edges and balance."
Cassidy can only hope Tsintsadze is able to get his pupils to skate as well as their new instructor.
"I don't know if I've seen a guy that demonstrates as well as him, let's put it that way," Cassidy said. "He knows exactly what he's doing. Don't forget he's been doing this for a while. It is mesmerizing at times. He can really go, great balance and speed. So you get the price of admission just watching him, that's for sure."
For the 24 Bruins hopefuls on hand, working on such skills is one of the primary goals for the camp.
"We're not doing a lot of systems here," Cassidy said. "It's more about skill development, building in some habits, back pressure, some of the things the Bruins pride themselves on. So we're working on that every day."
