You can be forgiven for not knowing what to expect out of Ondrej Kase.
The Bruins winger played just six games with Boston between the time he arrived from the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline to the time the season paused. And after appearing in just one practice in Boston before the team went to the Toronto hub, he didn’t get back on the ice with the Bruins until well into Phase 4.
But the expectation is when the Bruins face the Washington Capitals on Sunday, Kase will be on the second line right wing — the specific role the Bruins envisioned him filling when they traded for him.
Nobody has really seen Kase play lately, even in a practice setting, so Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy shared what he’s seen from the 24-year-old and what he’s expecting from him against the Caps.
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“Well he looks good (in practice),” Cassidy said Friday on a Zoom call. “He’s making some plays, he’s got some jump. I think the first three days were tough on him for obvious reasons. Now he’s been added probably, I don’t want to speak out of term, but I’ll say about a full week here. You can see he’s a little more natural just with everything he does. He’s got quick hands. My expectation is he’ll have a lot of energy, he’ll fight the puck a little like all our guys did early on, their first game back because of the speed of the game that’s going on around them, you just can’t replicate that (in practice).
“I anticipate he’ll get some shots (Sunday), he’s been doing that in practice, he thinks shot first so we could use some of that right now,” Cassidy continued. “We’ll have to watch his minutes, make sure he doesn’t get extended (in) his shifts early on where he can’t recover and put himself in a bad spot, so that’s something we’ll keep an eye on. But we need him to play, so he’s going to go over the boards when it’s his turn, and hopefully, like I said, he can pick it up quick because he’s missed some time, we know that. But he is young, some of the younger guys get it back quicker. We have every intention of using him on Game 1, we’ve just got to see where he’s at Sunday, and hopefully he takes advantage of the minutes he’s given and be ready to go.”
Kase had seven goals and 16 assists over 49 games with the Ducks this season. He’s posted just one assist in his six games with Boston thus far.
