WORCESTER—More than any other sport, hockey is a game of lines.
It has a red line and blue lines. It has goal lines and first lines and fourth lines. Off the ice, hockey has fine lines. Such as the fine line between being comfortable and being complacent, the fine line between working hard and working too hard.
Jordan Kaplan has been a first line guy for most of the Railers season, and this is already his most productive campaign as a professional at 17-28-45. One reason for that is how he is dealing with the mental part of the game—that fine line between being a perfectionist and a realist.
“I’m hard on myself,” he conceded. “Very, very hard. That’s something we’ve been working on the last two years.”
The “we” is Kaplan and Railers coach Nick Tuzzolino. Tuzzolino traded for Kaplan and goaltender Michael Bullion during the off-season. Both played for Savannah last year while Tuzzolino was an assistant coach. He helped both players recover from the Mt. Vesuvius of failure that was the 2022-23 Norfolk Admirals.
That team finished with a record of 21-46-5. The Admirals began the year 2-18-1 and Worcester was 5-0-1 against them in that span.
“I got caught in a tough spot down in Norfolk,” Kaplan reluctantly recalled. “Mentally, it was really tough. I had no confidence, was not the same player I had been, and it trickled down for the rest of the season.
“It was very, very hard. We’ve been working on it for the past two years beause that year we talked about, I went through everything.”
Kaplan was a respectable 14-14-28 in 51 games at Savannah last season. Tuzzolino saw someone who could be even better.
“He is highly skilled player who can put up big numbers,” the coach said. “What holds him back is not necessarily hockey related. I think a lot of times he has battled mental stuff, about trying to play with the right people, or do the right thing, make the greatest move or the greatest pass.
“We work a lot together on worrying about the now and not trying to do too much, and how simple his game is, can lead to all the points he wants.”
Kaplan, 27, is the oldest of three hockey brothers from New Jersey, better known as a baseball state (Mike Trout) than hockey. That is changing, though. The Railers have had 17 Garden Staters play for them through the years and have three on the roster right now.
Tyler Kobryn and Pito Walton are the other two.
Kaplan did play ball growing up but his dad, Scott, is a Colgate graduate and that ignited the hockey side of things. Brother Jalen Kaplan played for Colby, but not professionally. Devin Kaplan, 21, was a third-round draft pick by the Flyers in 2022 and is a well-regarded prospect at Boston University.
Jordan Kaplan has seen his BU brother a lot this winter and got to take in the Beanpot, which was a great experience.
“I was jealous watching it,” he said. “It was so intense.”
Kaplan played college hockey at Sacred Heart and Vermont. Bobby Valentine was the athletic director at Sacred Heart when Kaplan was there. He has fonder memories of the former Red Sox manager than most Sox fans.
“He did a good job at Sacred Heart,” Kaplan said. “I talked to him a few times, but he was always busy, running around.”
This has been an eventful season for Kaplan beyond the point totals. He registered a Railers first on Dec. 31 by scoring a hat trick in a 6-5 victory at Adirondack. The unprecedented part of that was that all three goals were on the power play.
Earlier that month he had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick — goal, assist, fighting major — the Railers’ first in almost two years.
This is Kaplan’s second stint with the Railers. He played two games with them in 2022-23, coming over in a trade with Newfoundland that happened in Newfoundland. No plane, no train, no bus, no cab ride with the deal.
Kaplan just walked from one dressing room to another. The trade was part of season that saw him play with four different ECHL teams and one in Europe.
“That’s just the way it is in this league,” he said. “There is a lot of movement.”
Kaplan hopes the team-hopping is done for a while, however, as he establishes solid ECHL credentials.
“Some of it is who you are comfortable with,” he said. “Tuzzy and I got along real well last year and this is an extension of that relationship, building on that.”
The Railers have another of their eternal critical weekends ahead. They are at Maine Friday night. First-place Trois-Rivieres is at the DCU Center Saturday and Sunday.
Worcester faces these must-win matches because of its slow start. The Railers were 10-16-3 in their first 29 games. They are 19-10-3 since then to rejoin the playoff race, something that seemed unlikely at Christmas time.
Some of that rebound is a result of Kaplan’s offensive contributions. They will need more of that to be playing for the Kelly Cup next month.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
