Following his eighth career game up in the NHL — a tilt in which he logged over 23 minutes of ice time for the second night in a row — Jeremy Lauzon was frank when discussing his chances of sticking with the Black and Gold.
The circumstances that brought the 21-year-old defenseman up from Providence were more out of a necessity than anything else, with Lauzon slotted into a crumbling D corps that has continued to take on water as more and more skaters land on IR.
But, even with a grand total of 131 minutes of ice time up with the Bruins, Lauzon believes that he can be much more than just an emergency call-up for this franchise.
“My goal is to stay here as long as possible,” Lauzon said. “And I think personally, I’m ready to play in the NHL. That’s my goal, and I’m going to do everything I can to stay here.”
And after Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Coyotes, can you fault him for his confidence?
On the second leg of a back-to-back stretch, Boston’s beleaguered blue line was in desperate need of some relief.
And as he’s shown with steadying consistency over the past week, Lauzon answered the call against Arizona — emerging as one of the standouts on a patchwork defense and shorthanded penalty kill that once again exceeded expectations amid a myriad of injuries.
With regular workhorses like Zdeno Chara and Brandon Carlo out of action, the added workload largely fell in Lauzon’s lap — with the Quebec native finishing with 23:29 TOI against Arizona, the second-highest total among all Bruins blueliners on Saturday.
But Lauzon is more than just the long arm out of the ‘pen as Boston attempts to shore up the holes on its defense — with the 2015 second-round pick making the most of any new responsibilities heaped on his plate.
On a Bruins penalty kill once again standing on its last legs without Chara, Carlo and its go-to man up front in Patrice Bergeron, Lauzon filled in admirably — logging the most shorthanded TOI (4:25) of any Bruins defenseman on the night.
Patrolling the high slot and using an active stick to interrupt passing lanes, Lauzon's play hampered the Coyotes' efforts of getting into a rhythm on the man advantage — with Arizona failing to capitalize on all four of its opportunities while only landing five shots on goal against Jaroslav Halak.
Of those five shots, Lauzon made sure the final salvo didn’t find twine — with the rookie swiping a loose puck out of the blue paint and away from danger in the closing seconds of the contest to close out the win.
Jeremy Lauzon with the final save of the night. What an ending. pic.twitter.com/SV2xX2xsul
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 18, 2018
