Boston Bruins Media Day Boston Bruins Owner
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BOSTON BRUINS MEDIA DAY BOSTON BRUINS OWNER JEREMY JACOBS, CEO CHARLIE JACOBS, PRESIDENT CAM NEELY, GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY AND HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY Monday, October 1, 2018 SWEENEY On Torey Krug… Torey [Krug] sustained a left ankle injury in the last preseason game, so he’s going to go in a boot for the next three weeks and then will be reevaluated. On the PTO players from Training Camp… PTO guys, Daniel Winnik has another opportunity he’s currently exploring, so we’re going to be in contact with him over the next few days to see what ultimately is his decision and ours, so we both explore things. The same thing with Lee [Stempniak]. Those PTOs will expire officially on the third as rosters open up. It doesn’t mean Lee won’t stay with us and continue to play with us. On if it was Torey Krug’s same ankle… Same foot, an ankle, but not related to the previous injury. CASSIDY On Matt Grzelcyk’s status… Got through practice today, didn’t complete every drill, but he’s progressing well. Better answer tomorrow after practice. We’re hoping he’ll go full-go, all-contact. If he gets through that then obviously he looks good for Wednesday. On Matt Grzelcyk’s replacement if he is not ready by Wednesday… It would be him [Urho Vaakanainen] or [Steven] Kampfer. Right now, Vaakanainen, three lefts, three rights is kind of the way we’re looking but we’ll make that decision once we hear about Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk]. Vaakanainen’s been very good, so has Kampfer, so whatever direction we go we feel comfortable. JEREMY JACOBS On his expectations this season… My expectations never lessened so far as this team is concerned. I think they look really, they’re young. We’ve got that on our side and we’ve got a good warehouse of talent. I expect them to improve on last year. We didn’t start as strongly, well I guess it was more finish we didn’t have last year. NEELY In response to Mr. Jacobs… So, is that 51 wins? [Laughter] CASSIDY On the greatest challenge of delivering the same points… Carry through on what we did. I think we need growth from our guys from our first year into the second year. We need good health. We’ve already taken one hit that Donnie [Don Sweeney] just spoke about, so that will catch up to you eventually, as well. Better start than last year, so I’d say it’s more on us. Clearly every year there’s teams that get better and some regress, so we can’t worry too much about them. Take care of our own business. On if the addition of John Tavares makes the Toronto Maple Leafs the biggest threat… They added a good player. They subtracted [James] van Riemsdyk and [Tyler] Bozak, two good players as well, so you have to factor that in. Until we see them it’s tough to tell, Kevin, like how good they can be. What they do have, like us I believe, is they have some good young players that you assume will get better. I think that will push them along as much as the [John] Tavares signing. On the length of Training Camp from a coaching standpoint… Well, from my point of view, it’s not long in terms of the time, three weeks. It used to be much longer, players come in much better shape now, prepared to go. Ours this year was a little disjointed because we had half the group in China, as you know, so it’s not your typical Training Camp. But in general, I think it’s the right amount of time. Do we always need eight games? That depends on team-to-team. Last year it sure helped us because we were looking at a lot of new faces. If your team’s pretty established six is probably enough. But at the end of the day I have no issue with it, the length of it. It works out for most teams. You get your work in, you get your games in, and then hopefully you’re ready to go. JEREMY JACOBS On the length of Training Camp from a business standpoint… I think that what happened this year with the China trip, the issues they ran into there complicated some of the experience, who stayed home and who left, their interaction was probably was somewhat hindered, but those fellas who did go to China I think had a camaraderie that was interesting. It’s an opportunity. The younger players I know enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. They had a lot of problems with the equipment moving and transportation, so that may have affected Butch’s [Bruce Cassidy] experience with the team together had been. SWEENEY On the prospects’ recent collective progress… Yeah, as a matter of fact one of the younger players I spoke with today asked me that very question. How do you take the next person’s job if they see a roadblock in front of them? We’ve been consistent all along that performance dictates that and if players get off to a slow start then we feel like we have depth and players that will continue to push. There are areas of your game as a young player you’re still going to have to continue to round out but when you get that opportunity, we’ve already had an injury as we’ve both referenced with [Torey] Krug. [Urho] Vaakanainen’s had a good camp. Maybe he gets an opportunity depending on where Grizzy’s [Matt Grzelcyk] at, and the players that aren’t currently with us - or won’t open the season with us – should recognize that we’re promoting from within, we’ve been growing from within. That speaks to the depth guys, as well. Whether that’s a Colby Cave or a [Jordan] Szwarz, those guys have to recognize through injury, through opportunity when it comes to take advantage of it. I haven’t met a coach that doesn’t play the best guys. We’ll stick with that pattern, so the guys recognize if they can continue to grow their game they’ll have an opportunity. CASSIDY On the challenges the first power-play unit has to overcome without Torey Krug… Well, the orchestrating part of it. Typically, half-wall is where it starts, so Torey [Krug] was good at running it from the top and getting to the half-wall with his movement, so it allowed Brad [Marchand] to move around who’s not a natural half-wall guy, get to the front of the net. So that’s going to create a bit of an issue. We’ll have somebody young up there, more than likely Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk] or [Urho] Vaakanainen or Charlie [McAvoy], those are our offensive guys, so they’ll be a bit of a learning curve there, so we’ll have to probably simplify it, get it into Pasta’s [David Pastrnak] hands more often. Maybe less movement, more pucks to the net and rely on the other group to pick up some of the slack. David Krejci is a very accomplished player in this league. He’s in charge of the second group, so we’ll rely on that group again to be more productive, and they should have more opportunities, as well. I think last year the first group got so hot that they were out there the majority of the time, so this year might be a little better balanced. SWEENEY On if he’s come out of camp a bit unfulfilled… Well, we all start back at the bottom, so all teams are in the same boat. I’m sure every other general manager looks at their own roster and cross your fingers you get through camp healthy, and obviously we had an injury there. So, it was a little disjointed as both Mr. Jacobs and Bruce [Cassidy] referenced with players in different locations. Since we’ve come back we’ve had three practices that are very encouraging for how we’re supposed to play and how we intend to play in the regular season, and I think today referenced the same way we’d like to continue to do that, tomorrow we’ll do that. When we’ve had our team together I think they’ve been focused. They’ve gotten through the things they want to do and want to accomplish, and I think tomorrow will be very similar. We saw pockets of it through camp. The other night the second period was one of the better periods, and we didn’t follow it up in the third, so there’s a consistency piece that we certainly have to deal with. And that will start on Wednesday night, but I think our practices as a group with the main part of our team, again Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] is part of that as well who hasn’t been in a game, but I think most guys get through it and wonder if they’re going to be healthy to start the season. Unfortunately, we’re not. Several other teams are in the same boat, but we move forward. We have a strong returning core of guys, and we’ve got some younger players that hopefully have benefitted from last year and they can take another step and other players that are going to have to push through. On how happy he is with the growth in depth in the organization during his tenure… Well, hopefully we’re going to be in a position where we’re going to be competitive and get back to the playoffs.