Just
as he did in Tuesday’s 6-3 barn-burner, Ryan
Spooner will strive to prolong his AHL tenure with the Providence Bruins
Saturday night. No. 1 goaltender Niklas
Svedberg, who ceded
the crease to rookie Malcolm Subban for
Game 4, will do the same if head coach Bruce
Cassidy elects to install the elder stopper.
The
Springfield Falcons will host the deciding dance in the best-of-five Eastern
Conference quarterfinal at MassMutual Center. If the P-Bruins polish the upset,
they will occupy themselves for no less than another week and a half.
In
that event, there is potential for the best-of-seven second round of the Calder
Cup playoffs to outlast the parent club’s endeavor. The Boston Bruins enter
their own Saturday tilt facing a 1-0 second-round deficit at the hands of the
Montreal Canadiens. Where that series stands, the familiar “if necessary”
asterisk makes its first appearance a week from Saturday for Game 5 on May 10.
On
the other hand, if the Falcons seize their third and final lead, Spooner and
Svedberg are the two most logical Boston Black Ace shoo-ins. They, if anybody,
figure to latch on with the Spoked-Bs’ Stanley Cup run in a practice-only
capacity if Providence’s 2013-14 slate evaporates this weekend.
If
all goes according to plan, Spooner and Svedberg will need no further fostering
before assuming a permanent Boston roster spot after the next training camp. No
shortage of Bruins bystanders scratched their heads when the second-year
professional pivot even returned to Rhode Island this past winter.
The
22-year-old Spooner saw action in 23 NHL games over the 2013-14 regular season.
That included a meaty stretch of 20 straight contests spanning Dec. 8 through
Jan. 20. He swelled his stats to 11 points while flaunting spurts of promise on
both sides of the puck as a stand-in on the third line.
Yet
when Boston’s roster started restoring normalcy, he was one of the sacrifices
to the farm. That move was to everyone’s benefit, though.
At
the time of Spooner’s reassignment on Jan. 28, Bruins bench boss Claude Julien told
the Boston hockey press corps, “He has been really good for us, but at the
same time he still has some things to work on. We can look at his point
production; at the same time he has no goals, so he’s got to learn to start
taking more goals to the net.”
Three
months and 32 AHL contests later, Spooner has buried eight goals, all in March
and April. Those include four at even strength, one shorthanded and two in the
first four games of the postseason.
On
the subject of playoff productivity, while Spooner is averaging a point per
game in the series, those four points have come in the form of two goal-assist
variety packs. What’s more is that both of those productive outings occurred on
home ice in Games 1 and 4.
But
Spooner charged up his share of variety packs in a variety of venues over the
course of the regular season. One of those happened to be on a March 15 visit
to Springfield. That night, he buried an unassisted shorthanded strike to saw a
3-1 deficit in half, though the Falcons wrested away a 4-2 final.
The
fact that Spooner and linemates Craig Cunningham and Matt Fraser perked up in
the face of elimination Tuesday night yields additional cause for
organizational encouragement. Points or not, win or not, an identical effort on
the road Saturday would embolden a welcome sign as Spooner’s development
progresses.
Should
the Baby Bs bow out, at least a week’s worth of NHL practice would be a decent
consolation prize to bridge into the summer. But another four-to-seven games of
authentic extramural action—postseason, no less—would be another worthwhile
test.
The
former scenario would entail more room to slow down and hear the front office’s
evaluations. The latter, however, has no developmental substitute in that there
is genuine competition from genuine opponents.
The
same concept applies to Svedberg, who went 1-1 in rubber games as a first-year
North American professional last season. It is one thing to hone oneself under
noticeable supervision in practice. It is another to do so before bright
lights, fans, a running clock and adversarial shooters.
Regardless,
if coerced into a choice, one can likely declare that Svedberg is striving to
stave off his Providence swan song more than Spooner.
Chad Johnson’s one-year Tuukka Rask apprenticeship in Boston is
unlikely to last beyond this summer’s free agency. The makeup of the Bruins
goaltending pipeline calls for Subban to assume the top slot in Providence while
Svedberg graduates to back up his fellow Scandinavian in 2014-15.
With
that being said, one more solid game, if not one more playoff round of AHL
action cannot hurt the drive to stamp the graduation diploma.
