BOSTON – Every once in a while, a young player needs a breakthrough game to boost their confidence over the grind of a long NHL season.
So the hope is that Ryan Donato's performance Thursday night can be the kind of thing that can get him over the hump after plenty of ups and downs this season. Donato scored a beauty of a top shelf sniper shot in the first period of Boston’s 4-2 loss to the Caps at TD Garden, but it wasn’t just lighting the lamp for the 22-year-old winger.
It was also the seven shots on net in 15:28 of ice time against quality players in Washington, and the way he was able to team with Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Danton Heinen for some traction against the Stanley Cup champs.
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“I thought it was one of his better games, on the puck, attacked well. Obviously, he finished with a nice play. What I liked about that play that he scored on was that he actually covered up for the defenseman,” said Bruce Cassidy. “He was in the right position when the puck found him, so as a coach those are the strides you hope players make over time.
One that he missed in assignment is very similar the other night, so good for him because he can finish plays, we know that. He’s around the front of the net, so that part of his game we like. He’s always competitive there. It’s just rounding it out, so [against the Capitals] he was arguably our most effective forward.”
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The slick passes by JFK and Torey Krug in the first period set Donato up for a wrist shot from the top of the right circle, one of the few times in recent games that the youngster had the time and space he needed to pick a spot. It was also part of doing his due diligence at film work as drifting back toward the top of the circles as a third forward high was something he just recently went over with the coaching staff.
“[That much time and space] doesn’t happen often in this league. We did, actually, some video the other day and that was one of the things we corrected, was to make sure you have a third guy when their D goes down. Obviously, paying attention to that paid off,” said Donato. “I think whenever you can score, it’s going to grow your confidence. I think it’s good to have your confidence in your teammates, to the teammates.
“When you’re playing that much and you can finally get rewarded, even though you might be hitting the post a lot and have a couple goals come back, I think it was a nice feeling for me, personally. I think a lot of the guys were happy to see that, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to work on making sure we get the win.”
Clearly there is still plenty of room to grow for Donato as consistency becomes the next challenge, and it certainly doesn’t look like he’s going to be the answer for a winger spot among the top-6. That still looks like it’s going to be an outside job at the NHL trade deadline.
But the Bruins could be on to something with this “kid line” on the third line with Donato, JFK and Heinen, and last night’s showing was another encouraging sign in the early portion of the season’s second half.
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