Jurcina takes confident steps

WILMINGTON -- In the Bruins' season-opening loss to Montreal, Brian Leetch logged a team-high 31 minutes and 23 seconds, a pace that no defenseman, much less a 37-year-old blue liner, could hope to sustain.

In the team's last game before the Olympic break, a 6-5 loss to Tampa Bay, Leetch skated a more palatable 19:38.

''It's great," Leetch said of his reduced workload. ''I hardly kill penalties anymore."

It's no coincidence that as Leetch's minutes have gone down, the ice time for rookie Milan Jurcina has increased. Jurcina, who did not dress for the season opener against the Canadiens, has since matured into a top-four defenseman who returned to the Bruins yesterday for his first practice since his Slovakia club won five straight games in Turin before bowing to the Czech Republic.

''I think it's a great opportunity for him to play at such a high level," coach Mike Sullivan said of Jurcina's play with Slovakia. ''I think it's a vote of confidence for him. He played extremely well, to his credit. I thought he played real well for his team, and I think that can only help when he comes back to our team."

While his coach saw Jurcina in person (Sullivan was an assistant for the US team), Leetch watched four of Slovakia's games on TV. Jurcina, paired mostly with Columbus defenseman Radoslav Suchy, recorded one assist in six games.

''I saw him play a lot," Leetch said. ''He made a lot of good defensive plays."

The beginning of the 2005-06 season didn't go Jurcina's way. After being scratched for the first two games, he dressed for the third, didn't play in the next two, then was demoted to Providence for the rest of October. Jurcina was recalled for Boston's 4-1 win over Florida Nov. 3, but the 6-foot-4-inch, 235-pound defenseman was sent back down to the AHL at the end of November.

''It was a little disappointing," Jurcina said. ''But I knew I had to keep working hard and hopefully they would call me up again."

Jurcina has the tools -- size, skating ability, a boomer of a shot -- but what he lacked was confidence. Leetch saw a 22-year-old bubbling with excitement about playing in the NHL, but also a rookie who was afraid of committing mistakes. Leetch thought that Jurcina, especially in his own zone, spent too much time thinking, worrying, and reacting to opponents instead of dictating the pace.

But since Jurcina's second demotion to Providence, Leetch has seen the rookie gain the confidence he needed and take advantage of the abilities -- playing the body, distributing the puck, skating around checkers -- that the coaching staff spotted in training camp. Jurcina is now third on the team in plus-minus (plus-7, trailing only Brad Boyes and Marco Sturm) and is tied for second among Bruins defensemen with five goals. He also has been seeing second-unit power-play time.

Jurcina, one of five Bruins who stayed after practice yesterday for the taping of an instructional video, said he felt a little tired from the Olympics. But he gave a thumbs-up for the experience, especially the honor of playing alongside heralded countrymen such as Zdeno Chara and Peter Bondra, and he hopes it will help him down the stretch.

''It was big for me," Jurcina said. ''Being a Slovakian guy, I never played for the main team before. I was nervous about it -- what the people think at home. It was good."

Sullivan defended his decision to give Tim Thomas 15 consecutive starts before the Olympic break, despite the goalie's admission that he was fatigued in the last match against the Lightning. Leetch, too, cited Thomas's contributions, noting the turnaround the 31-year-old sparked when he took over netminding duties. ''As a goaltender, he's the one guy that really impacts the complete game," Leetch said. ''He's done that for us. He's given everybody confidence up front. Without him, we'd all probably be talking to [GM] Mike O'Connell and be focused on who's going. But he's gotten us back into this." . . . Sullivan said that P.J. Axelsson, who won gold with Sweden Sunday, will be in the lineup tomorrow against Carolina. Sullivan said Axelsson will most likely fly directly to North Carolina and join the team in Raleigh . . . One reason Carolina has the second-most points in the NHL is Olympian Erik Cole (26-28--54), who had a goal and two assists for Team USA. ''He's a dynamic player," Sullivan said. ''He has great speed. He's a competitive kid. He's dangerous every time he's on the ice."