Bruins notebook: Erik Haula owns up to subpar play

Erik Haula had a pretty good game against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night. With the way his inaugural season with the Bruins has gone so far, that pretty much amounts to a news flash.

Not to get too carried away with Haula’s performance but, after a healthy scratch last Sunday against Vancouver, he played perhaps his most noticeable game of the year, getting three shots on net, throwing a couple of hits and drawing a penalty for the B’s first power-play of the night in 12:35 of icetime.

Haula, of course, has a long way to go if we are to classify his signing as a success. But to quote Bill Murray’s greatest character, the neurotic Bob Wiley, baby steps.

To his credit, though, Haula owned up to why he was in the press box on Sunday.

“I feel like I’ve been in the league long enough. I’ve seen all the situations there are. And, yes, I think it was warranted in a sense,” said the 30-year-old Haula. “I wasn’t where I needed to be. I wasn’t playing the way the team needs me to play. In a sense, I took it as ‘Let’s re-set and start over and find my game again.’ And make it look like it’s supposed to.”

Haula is still stuck on 1-2-3 totals in 18 games, he hasn’t registered a point and his effort wasn’t enough to keep the B’s from lose to the Red Wings. But his performance was a faint shimmer of a silver lining in a game that provided few.

“He played well last night, we thought,” said assistant coach Joe Sacco, filling in for Bruce Cassidy while the head coach is in Covid protocol. “He was skating, I thought he held on to the puck at times in the offensive zone, so there was definitely some things that he could build off from his game moving forward. He made some plays in the offensive zone and that’s what we were talking about with Erik as far as having some confidence with the puck down low in the offensive zone. And he was moving his feet.”

And that, for Haula, is the key ingredient.

“I think it was good step toward the right direction. I kind of had a stretch there where I wasn’t happy with my game myself,” said Haula, who signed a two-year deal worth $2.375 million per season last summer. “I didn’t really recognize the player that was out there, so it was probably good to sit out a game, kind of re-set a little bit and work to get back to my game, which was more of (Tuesday) night. I was skating, more confident on the puck, harder, so that’s my emphasis and that was a good step toward the right direction.”

Haula said it wasn’t so much of a light bulb going on for him as he watched the B’s comeback victory over the Canucks from up above.

“I didn’t necessarily get anything out of that game in that sense. It’s all about going out and executing at the end of the day. But if I took anything from it, it was just knowing that getting the puck and moving your feet, for me, is vital in my game. That’s literally what I was trying to focus on (Tuesday) night,” he said.

Haula did not place all of the blame for his slow start on learning a new system.

“There’s a lot of variables that go into it,” said Haula, who’ll return to his most recent previous NHL home, Nashville, for Thursday’s tilt against the Predators. “At the start of the season, I was fine with it, though I didn’t have the production. There are different things that can factor into it. I was a little in my own head – a lot actually. So in that sense, that re-set was good. It just cleared the head a little bit. Starting over is a little bit of a dramatic thing to say, but yeah…you just take a breath and look at some things and focus on a few areas and that’s usually worked for me before.”

What exactly the right fit is for Haula is not quite clear. With Brad Marchand (suspension) and Anton Blidh (upper body injury) still out, Haula skated as left wing on a the second line with Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith in practice on Wednesday, though Sacco said that the practice lines may not be what we see in Thursday’s game. Haula’s uncertain placement in the lineup is further complicated by Jake DeBrusk’s trade request. As a centerman, he had been paired with DeBrusk from the start of camp. Like the rest of the B’s players and staff, Haula is trying to deal with the situation as professionally as possible.

“I like Jake as a person and as a player. I have respect for him. I’ve built a good friendship with him in a short time here, so I think he’s doing what he can right now,” said Haula. “He played hard (Tuesday) night and he’s keeping his focus on being a good Bruin. So that’s that. We’re all just focusing on the Boston Bruins and trying to get better as a team. We have some goals in mind and that’s what we’re working toward. All the rest will fall in place.”

This and that

Patrice Bergeron, who took shots off the same foot in the last two games, did not practice on Wednesday, but Sacco termed it a maintenance day. The captain is expected to be available for the Preds game…

Sacco said on Wednesday that a starting netminder for Thursday had not been determined yet.

 

 

 

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