Matt Grzelyck’s game is built on speed and skill, while Jeremy Lauzon (one goal, one assist in 19 games) is more about size and snarl.
Every player on the Bruins’ expanded roster wanted to have perfect attendance for the practice sessions leading to the completion of a season interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some players needed the practice more than others.
Matt Grzelcyk and Jeremy Lauzon were fortunate enough to get it. Heading into Friday afternoon’s scheduled scrimmage at Warrior Arena, Grzelcyk and Lauzon had participated in all eight full-team workouts — no delayed or inconclusive COVID-19 test results, no injuries.
Some teammates who hadn’t been as lucky and missed a practice or two could afford it, but Grzelcyk and Lauzon needed to work, and they needed to work together. They had seemed to solve a season-long puzzle by forming a solid, consistent third defense pairing when the NHL paused its season on March 12, but unlike the duos above them on the depth chart — Zdeno Chara-Charlie McAvoy and Torey Krug-Brandon Carlo — Grzelcyk and Lauzon had played together for less than two months.
Lauzon, in particular, is grateful that he and Grzelcyk have had the better part of two weeks to get back to where they were in March.
"It’s been really helpful," said Lauzon, 23, a third-year pro selected in Round 2 (No. 52 overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft. "Both of us were out of skating for a couple of months, so just to be able to be back together to find that chemistry, find that rhythm, has been huge for us."
Lauzon’s size — 6 feet 2 inches and about 200 pounds — has helped the B’s address the season-long absence of 6-2, 210-pound Kevan Miller (knee), Grzelcyk’s previous partner.
Connor Clifton, a surprise contributor last season and into the playoffs, experienced something of a second-year setback to start this season, sustaining an upper-body injury in late December that kept him out of the lineup until the end of February, and at 5-11, 175 pounds, Clifton wasn’t all that much bigger than the 5-foot-9-inch, 174-pound Grzelcyk. Veteran John Moore, who needed until early December to recover from off-season shoulder surgery, brought size (6-2, 210) and experience, but was uncomfortable as a left-hand shot playing on the right side.
Enter, via AHL Providence, Lauzon, who had filled in admirably early in 2018-19 when the B’s experienced injury issues on the blue line. The Bruins called him up on Jan. 21, and the only games Lauzon didn’t play after that were the two he missed while serving an NHL suspension for a check to the head of Coyotes forward Derek Stepan on Feb. 8.
"We felt we needed more bite in the lineup," coach Bruce Cassidy said, "and Lauzon’s a bigger man who gives us that, and was willing to give us that.
"It worked for us. We seemed to turn the page a little bit as a team, and [Lauzon] was in the lineup."
The Bruins, in fact, went 15-3-1 in the 19 games Lauzon played this season, and although it was truncated to 70 games, Grzelcyk had the best of his three NHL seasons, setting career-high marks for games (68), goals (4), assists (17) and points (21).
Lauzon didn’t think that meant he was guaranteed a job when the NHL announced its Return-to-Play plan, though.
"[Clifford and Moore] are both back at 100%, and they’re both really good players," Lauzon said. "So I came back here with the mentality that I want to win my spot back, and that’s what I try to do every day: Work hard on the ice, off the ice, let the coach know I’m ready for it."
Grzelcyk, meanwhile, made sure not to presume that he and Lauzon would pick up in July and August where they had left off in February and March.
"We’re trying to work on a few things after practice, to make sure that when [games] get back, we get back on track with how things were going," said Grzelcyk, 26. "We’ve realized we don’t have a ton of time to build that back into our game, so we’ve been trying to stick to each other as best we can."
Consistent practice time since the Bruins assembled on July 13 has been essential. So has continuation of the communication that helped the pair mesh quickly over the winter.
"We’re pretty talkative in between shifts, always [discussing]) certain things we see from each other and what we can do to put ourselves in a better position," Grzelcyk said. "If a certain situation pops up, you know where your partner’s going to be and that makes you play that much faster."
Grzelyck’s game is built on speed and skill, while Lauzon (one goal, one assist in 19 games) is more about size and snarl. Lauzon, who has not played a playoff game yet, is excited to see how the pairing works once the top-seeded B’s reach the Eastern Conference hub in Toronto to play a three-game, round-robin tournament before a best-of-7, first-round series.
"I think we’re two different kinds of players, but together, we play really good," Lauzon said. "I complement [Grzelcyk] a lot, and he does for me, too. I’m looking forward to starting to play games and to be back at it."