The Boston Bruins have a slew of young players on their roster who have been proving they belong on the team.
But with being young comes making mistakes, which Bruce Cassidy has seen from some of the younger depth guys. Such was the case Tuesday in the Bruins' thrilling 5-4 win over the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden.
Jeremy Lauzon gifted the Devils a goal when he essentially placed the puck on Kyle Palmieri's stick. And even though Brad Marchand helped provide the spark for the Bruins for the comeback, Cassidy doesn't want his team relying on him every night to do that -- especially when they have young defenders who should answer the bell when needed.
"On the back end it's hard to sit a guy like you can a forward," Cassidy said after the game. "You can certainly send a message -- for a lack of a better term -- like you do with your children with a temporary timeout and rethink some things and reset. ... The message was, especially if you're gonna go up the middle of the ice, in the National Hockey League, you need to be clean. Beyond the tape, you need to be assertive. Because if you're not clean, you're gonna get somebody hurt. For example the first play from Lauzon up to (Patrice Bergeron), it's in his feet, it's a slow roller. That's a dangerous hockey play. ... Two of them resulted in goals.
"So the lesson learned is you look up the middle of the ice, and it's always one of the better breakouts if you can execute it. We've seen Charlie McAvoy do it here at a young age early on. He just has that ability. Some of the other guys are gonna have to figure out when it's there when they can make that play. ... So, that was the message. We need these guys to grow their game. They're in the lineup every night. They've defended and played hard so that was some of the messaging."
But Cassidy wasn't done there.
"When you're a young player in the National Hockey League, you're given an opportunity to play here," he said. "When things go a little bit awry we cannot rely on Brad Marchand to bring us energy in terms of physicality -- or we should not have to. Brad's a leader, good for him, he tried to get a spark. That's where the Lauzons can make up for a (Connor) Clifton, a (Jakub) Zboril, a (Karson) Kuhlman, a (Zach) Senyshyn, a (Trent) Frederic, a (Anton) Blidh. We need those guys to sort of turn the tide of the game with some physicality, something to get the bench excited, the crowd excited, and I'll put that with the D, as well. ... That was the messaging in the second-period intermission, kind of spelling out a role for players. And you hope the rest of their game grows in terms of their execution just with time, and a little bit of confidence knowing they're staying in the lineup."
Can't get much more blunt than that.
We'll see if the message is received Thursday when the Bruins continue their homestand against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7 p.m. ET.
