Boston Bruins Talk: Head Coach Bruce Cassidy Responds When Asked If He Is Asking Too Much Of Youth
The Boston Bruins youth movement has seemingly been halted this season with many of their young players taking a step back instead of taking a step forward.
A very recent incident of this is when the team assigned forward Anders Bjork to the AHL Providence Bruins after a slow start. A fair question of the slow start by the young players is if the team has asked too much of their young players, a question that found it’s way to Head Coach Bruce Cassidy after Boston’s 4-2 loss on Saturday night.
Cassidy’s response?
Well it was rather lengthy and honest.
“They never will be because it’s the NHL, and if they want to play here they’re going to get asked a lot. It doesn’t mean we’re going to get it. What we do demand is competitiveness, get better, practice hard every day to get better. Not trying to get away from your question, but tonight they were up against it a bit we saw. They’re going to have their ups and downs. That’s the best way to put it. Hopefully they’re going to learn from it and realize that it’s a 60-minute game and it’s an 82-game league, so we’ve got to bring it every night. We’ve talked about that with some of the players we’ve sat out that are young. Ryan [Donato] bounced back. He wasn’t great on the walls. These are some of the things people ask, why is he down there when he can score? Well he’s down there to work on those things. It’s about keeping the puck out of your net as much as getting it in theirs. I thought he did a real good job trying to tone. He scored a goal, he attacked well and played to his strengths, so that’s what we want and we’re going to work him through his weaknesses, deficiencies, you choose your word, and that’s that with him. The younger D, eventually it’s going to catch up to them. It’s a tough position to play. I told you the last goal there were two veteran guys that have been in the league that were on the ice, and I don’t think they managed the puck well enough to get it into their end because we were doing a good job of that in the third. We were giving up very little, and then they score on a mismanaged puck.”
Definitely an honest response from Cassidy, but with the coach being touted as being good for the youth it is rather troubling seeing so many of these players struggling so mightily with little progress being shown. But that is the reality of having a young team, plenty of time to turn it around, but for now, it looks like the Boston Bruins have a lot to figure out.
