Boston Bruins head coach Marco Sturm is playing it extremely safe when it comes to the NHL debut of 19-year-old Boston College forward James Hagens.
Any hopes Bruins fans had of seeing Hagens in the first game since he was signed on Wednesday were snuffed out by Sturm in an interview given after Friday’s practice.
“James will not play tomorrow, and we’ll take it day by day,” Sturm said as quoted by Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub. “It’s [his] first time up here. Yesterday was a very exciting day, today was, I think, the first time [where it was like] ‘OK, this is about hockey.’ And you could see it, even in practice, he just needs time and to get used to our system.”
The Bruins have a monumental game on the horizon against the third-place Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon. With a win, Boston would clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and come closer to locking up the highest-seeded Wild Card spot.
Sturm expressed that, at the end of the day, it’s about putting Hagens in a position to succeed.
“That’s the biggest thing: We’re not going to throw that kid in and fail,” Sturm said. “I don’t want to do that. He’s on the right track, that’s our next step, and we’ll take it day by day and find the right time.”
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