Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t quite call his team soft on Saturday, but he did make it clear that he wants to see it be harder to play against.
While answering a question about defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, who returned from injury on Thursday and is getting an opportunity to show whether he can be an everyday player, Cassidy said that a big reason he’s getting this chance is because the team needs more of the shutdown defensive play that he can bring.
“We’re giving him opportunity for the obvious reasons, that he was the most consistent D-man in Providence when we called him up. That’s why he’s here,” Cassidy said. “Shutdown role is something he can gravitate towards, because it’s what he was drafted for. I think we need a little bit more of that in our game in general back there.”
Here’s the kicker:
“We have a lot of nice guys on our team. We need to be more like pricks, to be honest with you,” Cassidy said.
“I don’t know if Urho’s going to be that guy, but we’d like him to develop into a shutdown guy that can be a little harder to play against,” Cassidy added. “We’d like that whole D corps to bring a little more of that. Even though they’re not by nature, but just as a six-some every night. Like Charlie [McAvoy] when he brings it, physicality. When [Jean-Gabriel] Pageau hit [Brandon] Carlo the other night, you see Charlie, all of a sudden the competitiveness ramps up. He didn’t get hit; his teammate did. So we need more of that from the whole group, to be honest with you.”
One defenseman the Bruins definitely need to play that way more is Derek Forbort, who committed a turnover and then lost a puck battle behind the net on one of the Islanders’ goals Thursday. Forbort appeared to be heading for a healthy scratch for Saturday night’s game in Ottawa, based on the morning skate lines tweeted out by The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa.
That could change, however, because Carlo got cut by Linus Ullmark’s skate during morning skate and now may miss Saturday’s game. Cassidy said Carlo went for stitches and it will likely come down to how comfortable he feels later in the day.
As for Forbort, Cassidy made it clear more is expected of him, while again reiterating that he’s not the only one who needs to be better.
“He has to be harder,” Cassidy said. “You have to execute. You have to play to your strength. He’s been good on the kill, but the puck play the other night, to me, was one of our worst as a group back there. We need to execute better, value possession of the puck more.
“Then obviously through the neutral zone, as a forward group, we had some turnovers as well -- top guys, bottom guys -- that cost us the game in the end. Just too many of them. So value on the breakout, value through the neutral zone, puck possession.”
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