Jarred Tinordi will make Bruins debut Wednesday vs. Capitals
Clearing COVID protocols and on the ice for practice Tuesday, waiver wire pickup Jarred Tinordi won’t have to wait long to make his Bruins debut, as Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy will throw him right into the lineup for Wednesday’s home tilt against the Capitals.
“I wanted to make sure he was in a good place in terms of his travel here, getting enough reps comfortable,” Cassidy said after the morning skate. “So he wants to get in so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Driving from Nashville to Boston, the 6-foot-6 Tinordi has practiced with Connor Clifton on a potential third pair, and will be asked to simply bring his game to the sheet in tonight’s East powerhouse matchup.
That’s an ask that Cassidy believes is manageable, with the 29-year-old Tinordi coming from a John Hynes-coached system in Nashville that preached a somewhat similar defensive philosophy.
“They were playing a little bit of that [system] in Nashville,” Cassidy acknowledged. “They made a switch, so they have some similarities just in terms of layers. They’ll they’ll close off, chase up a little higher. We’ve talked about that, about where he’s kind of dead areas are and when to fall back to the front of the net.
“Neutral zone I don’t think we’ll be anything a whole lot different. And then puck-play is kind of what you see and what we’re looking for from night-to-night, what we typically want to do and then what is the opposition doing? So that one is kind of on the player to make the best available play and take the best available option.”
In action for seven games with the Predators this season, Tinordi totaled 12 hits and 11 blocked shots to go with eight shots on goal prior to his move to Boston.
And though an obvious journeyman that’s bounced from Nashville to Arizona and Montreal since being taken with a first-round pick in 2010, Tinordi is also coming off a year of career-highs in 2019-20, with single-season bests in assists (four), points (five), hits (71), blocks (36), time on ice per game (16:37), and games played (28).
Primarily utilized as a D-zone banger throughout his time in Nashville, Tinordi may bounce around the Boston defense corps throughout the night, as alluded to by Cassidy. But it’s clear what the Bruins are looking for out of him against a heavier Capitals squad that’s not afraid to grind teams down.
“P.K., I don’t imagine there’ll be a ton different in that regard,” said Cassidy. “He’s a big, big body, long stick. So take care of the front of the net.”
But if that didn’t spell it out, Cassidy’s last word on Tinordi certainly did: “Play your game.”
