Boston Bruins: 2015 First-Round Picks Fail Conditioning Test
In all the hullabaloo with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots starting their first game of the season, there was a little information out of the TD Garden about the team’s newest Bruins. It appears that all three of the Boston Bruins 2015 first round draft picks (Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zach Senyshyn) all failed their conditioning test…again. The three players had previously failed the test back in July during the Bruins developmental camp. While it’s certainly not great news, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney isn’t too concerned about the young prospects inability to make the grade today.
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“There’s still an educational process [here]. These are young kids, and they need to understand they are now being evaluated as pros,” said Sweeney, who said all players that flunked the conditioning test will still get a chance to play in the Buffalo rookie tournament this week. “They have to compare themselves against the pros and the established guys. If you don’t realize that there’s some work to be done then that will be pointed out.
“Really it’s about going forward for each and every one of them. Some guys will return to their junior teams with the expectation next year that they have to pass. We expect them to pass. They’ll have to do some work as a result of it. But it’s still an educational process as far as their personal growth.”
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Jake DeBrusk, who was the Bruins’ fifteenth overall came the closest to passing, missing a passing grade by just one second.
“I was close, so I know what to expect and work on for next time,” said DeBrusk, who finished at exactly a minute on the third sprint to just barely fail the test. “I did way better than I did in the first time. I passed two out of the three. It was tough out there because we were on turf, and it was raining outside today. So sometimes you were slipping and falling out there. That cuts down a couple of seconds, but I was right there.”
Those young Bruins cubs will definitely having something to work on as they go back to their junior teams. If they don’t, they’ll end up in the tender care of Bruins Strength and Conditioning Coach John Whitesides.
Whitesides is known for his kind and thoughtful demeanor. He’s also has a gift for dropping F-bombs. He can use it as a noun, a verb, an adjective, and has even turned it into a prepositional phrase. Whitesides has a gift for motivating young players. (He also have a gift for ramming a size 11 Adidas up an under-performing player’s backside.) These are 18-year old kids who won’t be part of the Bruins teams for years. But it certainly isn’t the best way to ingratiate yourself to your NHL team.