Bruins’ Jakub Lauko Bringing ‘Physicality’ Despite ‘Grapes’ Moniker.
Boston — Over the past few months, if you’ve been following the Bruins on any social media site, you may have noticed an intriguing addition to several of their posts.
The B’s have a valid cause for always using the “grapes” emoji. They’re honoring one of the most bizarre—yet logical—nicknames in hockey.
You’ll hear nicknames in every hockey locker room in the globe, yet most of them are just abbreviations for people’s real names. Brad Marchand is sometimes referred to as “Marchy” in Boston. “Pasta” refers to David Pastrnak. Geekie Morgan? “Geeks,” naturally.
Jakub Lauko, though, is affectionately known as “grapes” and he explained why Tuesday.
“I was playing back home, and we usually had a lot of fruit before the game, whether it’s oranges, peaches, grapes or whatever. I came to Providence and we didn’t have anything, so I just start bringing in fruit for a game,” Lauko explained following Bruins practice.
“I was just trying different kinds of fruit: watermelons, oranges, but I was saying — If I have an orange, I have to peel it and then my hands get sticky. It’s the same with peaches, I’d bite it and juices would get everywhere.
“I tried grapes one day and I think I scored like two goals.. so I kept going with grapes and now it’s more like a meme now.”
Boston is quite familiar with the nickname, as former Bruins head coach Don Cherry was called “grapes” throughout his career, which never really matched up with his brazen personality.
Cherry was the type of coach who encouraged his team to play with physicality, so in a way, the nickname fits perfectly for Lauko, who describes himself as a player who has built himself in that mold.
“I was used to scoring goals, but I kind of realized over the years that I wasn’t as talented as the guys around me,” Lauko said. “It was about making a change in how I wanted to play because I realized I can’t take Pasta’s place. I can’t take Marchy’s place.
Those are players that are on a different skill level than me. It was just a self-realization that I needed to be more gritty, be more hard, be more physical. It took longer than — it would have benefitted me (if I made the change) sooner. It took longer, but I’m happy with where I’m at now.
“It was after the last season in Providence, it was just like, ‘Hey, I can’t play like this. I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not.’ I took a big look at my game. I started at zero again, and just changed it all the way.”
For Lauko, it may have seemed like a long time coming, but he is still a young man. The Bruins have gone 44-8-5 with him in the lineup, giving him the highest winning percentage (.772) of any player in NHL history who has skated in at least 50 games. He actually reached that insight far sooner than others, and it has paid off for him.
It makes no difference where Boston places Lauko. He always manages to come up with something. In the last several games, he moved up the line order, which increased his scoring. Like he did at the beginning of the season, Lauko will most likely find himself scrapping if they need him to go back down.
Shall we say the grapes are to blame for everything? No, but going ahead, it can’t hurt to leave some out in the Bruins locker room.
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