Young forwards will accompany team to Toronto as Boston gets ready for season to resume
It’ll take a lot of work, and probably a few breaks, for there to be an opportunity to play. If that doesn’t work out, there’s a chance that the months of August and September and beyond will be spent doing little more than practicing, and sitting around in hotels.
All the same, Anders Bjork and Jack Studnicka would have been crushed if the Bruins hadn’t added them to the roster they’ll take to Toronto to resume the NHL season interrupted by COVID-19.
The B’s, scheduled to arrive in the Eastern Conference hub city on July 26, are assured of working and living inside that bubble at least through the end of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which are expected to start on Aug. 10 or 11. The Bruins’ expectations are higher than that, though: Owners of the NHL’s best regular-season record and motivated by last year’s near-miss in the Cup Final, they’re telling themselves to prepare to stay away from home all the way through Oct. 4 — the projected final date of this year’s Final, which will be held in Edmonton.
Bjork and Studnicka are already dealing with a bubble situation in training camp, which opened on Monday: Neither one has a job nailed down, although Bjork, injury-free for the first time in his three-year pro career, seems close. After spending the first two weeks of the season at AHL Providence, he was promoted to Boston and set career-best numbers for games (58), goals (9), assists (10) and points. He’d been shuffled out of the lineup when the season was suspended on March 12, though, playing only one of the Bruins’ last five games.
"I feel like I have a lot more to prove to my teammates and coaching staff — that I can pull some more weight for our team, help out more, chip in more ways," said Bjork, 23, who is at the end of his three-year, entry-level contract. "That’s the main thing I want to show and prove [in training camp], and this is obviously a big time to be doing it — going right into playoff hockey."
Bjork, primarily a third-line player throughout the season, got to show more offensive skill over the first two days of camp, when the absence of right wings David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase (both fulfilling quarantine and testing obligations related to COVID-19) gave him a chance to skate with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, the Bruins’ top two centers. Pastrnak returned to the ice on Wednesday, though, and with Kase expected back as soon as Thursday’s practice, Bjork again faced the prospect of becoming the Bruins’ 13th forward.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy hasn’t written Bjork out of the lineup just yet, though, and he doesn’t want Bjork to do that, either.
"There’s no use in me talking to Anders about being patient when he might be in there on Day 1," said Cassidy, who learned Wednesday afternoon that he was one of three finalists for the NHL’s Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach.
"Let’s get everyone on the ice, get the full group out there. As we go along and sort through our lineup, see how everyone’s health is, then, yeah, the conversation might be, ‘You’re forward No. 13 or whatever, and you’ve got to prepare yourself to be in the lineup.’ But the message right now is to put your best foot forward. When it’s your turn in practice, go 100% and understand there’s competition."
Studnicka, the P-Bruins’ scoring leader as a rookie this season (23 goals, 26 assists, 49 points in 60 games), understands the odds are stacked against him playing. Four centers are ahead of him on the depth chart, with several others capable of playing in the middle. But injuries, illnesses and slumps can open spots quickly, and between players returning from a four-month layoff to COVID-19, the chances of players suddenly becoming unavailable may be greater than ever.
"If an opportunity were to arise, I’d be fully comfortable hopping in there and contributing," Studnicka said. "For right now, I’m just trying to put my head down, work as hard as I can and show that, if an opportunity like that was to happen, they should have confidence in me."
Even if it works out that he’s just along for the ride, it’s one Studnicka doesn’t want to miss.
"This was something I kind of had my eye on," said Studnicka, 21, who felt "a little bit of relief, and a lot of excitement" when told he’d been selected to come up from Providence to complete the NHL season. "It’s definitely a … unique situation going on, something that’s never happened. To be able to be part of that … is definitely going to be a lot of excitement."