Beyond the box score, Peter Cehlarik doing the little things to stake claim as viable top-6 contributor

Bruce Cassidy was searching for the proper word to describe Boston’s latest top-six winger.

He’s only logged a hair over 32 minutes of ice time up in the NHL ranks this season, but Peter Cehlarik has hardly looked like a mid-season call up so far on David Krejci’s line — tallying three points as the latest candidate to solve Boston’s scoring droughts.

So what was it going to be for Boston’s bench boss following Thursday’s 5-2 victory over the Blues?

Excited? Encouraged?

“Yeah, those ‘e’ words,” Cassidy said of Cehlarik. “Elated, enthusiastic. He’s done what we’ve asked and more.”

Given the rate at which Cassidy and his staff have juggled forwards around in Boston’s lineup, perhaps it’s premature to label Cehlarik’s showing as anything more than just a nifty start.

Sure, the 23-year-old winger has produced on the scoresheet over a pair of games, but a top-six unit featuring Joakim Nordstrom alongside Krejci and Jake DeBrusk also generated a couple of 5v5 tallies when first assembled — before eventually getting shuffled around again and again as the year dragged on. 

So what makes this case any different? Yes, Cehlarik has exceeded expectations so far in his third stint with the B’s. But for Cassidy, it's the unexpected strengths of the winger’s game that have truly set him apart so far — and made Cehlarik a key addition at just the right time for a Bruins team in need of a scoring lift.



Cehlarik might have jumped the line a bit in terms of an NHL promotion, especially with both Ryan Fitzgerald and Anders Bjork sidelined due to injury. But the Slovak has hovered on Boston’s radar for years due to his steady rate of production down at the AHL level — tallying 90 points in 121 career games with Providence.

A smooth skater with a big frame (6-foot-2, 202 pounds), Cehlarik has always had the tools to be an effective player in the offensive zone. But when it comes to developing a consistent, versatile game, Cehlarik, like most young skaters, had a bit of a learning curve to adjust to. Even this season with Providence, Cehlarik was tabbed as a healthy scratch for a night due to lackluster play.

But so far this week, it’s largely been both his play with the puck off his stick and in the neutral zone that has served as the most encouraging signs for a skater starting to round into form.

While Boston’s previous second-line trio of Krejci, DeBrusk and David Backes often found itself stuck in the mud during transition plays, Cehlarik has fit in seamlessly so far with his new linemates when it comes to pushing the puck through the neutral zone and putting the opposition on its heels.

While Cehlarik did a great job finishing off a feed from DeBrusk on Wednesday for his first goal of the season, he also deserves credit for jump-starting the sequence. While recovering a cleared puck sent out by Brandon Carlo along the boards the neutral zone, Cehlarik made the smart pass back out to Krejci, who had space to operate after Claude Giroux pinched over with Ivan Provorov in an attempt to recover Carlo’s feed.

Krejci and his linemates did the rest, with the pivot feeding the puck ahead to DeBrusk and starting off a passing sequence that led to Cehlarik’s tally seconds later.



Making a heads-up pass away from the O-zone once again paid dividends for Cehlarik on Thursday, as he took a feed from Charlie McAvoy in the high slot of Boston’s zone and tapped it up to Krejci near center ice, allowing Krejci to once again gain a clean entry with three St. Louis skaters behind him. Eight seconds later, Krejci hit Torey Krug in the slot for yet another 5v5 goal for Boston.



He might have not tallied an assist on the play, but Cehlarik’s play in the seconds leading up to David Backes’ power-play goal in the second period also stood out for Cassidy on Thursday. While McAvoy’s feed to Cehlarik in the slot was not corralled by the winger, he managed to beat Joel Edmundson to the skittering puck along the boards, winning the battle that allowed Boston to send the biscuit back out to the blue line — where Zdeno Chara’s blast was eventually tipped home by Backes.



“He finished the other night, a couple times, so we know he’s capable of offense. I just think he’s winning – even the Backes goal,” Cassidy said of Cehlarik. “It’s a 50-50 puck against a big body. He gets there first. Ties up, Krech follows, so now you’re winning puck battles. It’s a big part of hockey, to me. You can go through all of the x’s and o’s of every team in the system, but when you win puck battles, assuming you have good players, which we do, you’re going to make plays when you have it more. “

From a possession perspective, it’s hard to find many faults in Cehlarik’s brief stint so far. In 25:43 of  5v5 TOI so far, Cehlarik has generated an absurd 76.74 Corsi For Percentage and a plus-12 shot differential. Along with a pair of 5v5 goals generated, Cehlarik has also been out on the ice for 15 5v5 scoring chances for Boston, along with just four for the opposition. That’s impressive stuff.

Still, Cassidy is in the same boat as the lot of us. It’s an awfully short sample size. But for a Bruins team that desperately needed a shot in the arm up front, it’s tough to not get excited about what Cehlarik has brought this week.

“It’s two games, so you try to temper it, but my biggest concern with Peter was, 'Did he learn what was required to stay in the NHL level when he’s not playing to his strengths: managing pucks, winning pucks, defensively?'” Cassidy said. “He’s done that, he’s hit all those checklists, and he’s rewarding us offensively. Real nice to see.”