For Billerica’s Marc McLaughlin, childhood dreams come to fruition with sterling Bruins debut

It’s a moment that has played out in Marc McLaughlin’s head countless times before. 

Like any hockey-crazed youngster raised in the Commonwealth and fed a steady dose of highlights of Orr, Bourque, Neely and others during their formative years, those days and nights spent shooting pucks in the driveway or rifling biscuits in the basement were set against an imaginative backdrop of the Bruins’ barn at TD Garden.

With each puck fired off, McLaughlin conjured up the cacophony of a riled-up Garden crowd, the blare of the B’s goal horn — the rush that comes with lighting the lamp for your hometown club. 

Turns out, reality doesn’t stray that much from those childhood musings.

The crowd was as loud as McLaughlin could have imagined — with the cheers (and tears) bellowing from the 50-plus friends, family and teammates in attendance on Thursday night lost in the din erupting on Causeway Street.

The goal horn blared through the speakers, an aperitif before the familiar chorus of “Zombie Nation”. 

And in the middle of it all sat McLaughlin on the B's bench in his first NHL game — a smile etched in stone on his face — and his first career goal stamped onto the Garden scoreboard. 

"I feel like I've lived that moment as a kid 100 million times down in my basement or shooting pucks,” McLaughlin said after his debut on Thursday night. “But for it to come true here and get in a game and obviously to be able to contribute with a goal, it's really special. Coming into it, the boys definitely loosened me up a bit and made me feel comfortable in the room. I feel like that went a long way, getting out there for the first time.”

For McLaughlin, whose game — from Cushing Academy to Cedar Rapids to Chestnut Hill — has been anchored by steady, two-way play, Patrice Bergeron stood as an obvious template to follow.

During most of those shooting sessions at his home, McLaughlin often imagined himself in Bergeron’s skates while playing through that dream of lighting the lamp in an NHL arena.

So to get a reassuring bucket tap and hug from the B’s captain just moments after burying his second-period tally stood as one of many “pinch-me” moments on Thursday night.

“Well, did you see the bench? Tells you a bit about our team,” Bruce Cassidy said of McLaughlin’s goal. “This kid has only been here a little bit, about how hard he's worked. I mean I think every guy on the bench was excited for him. He's a hard-working kid — to get your first goal in front of your parents and family — it's a  nice thing to be able to do that. So I think everyone's really happy for him. He earned it. Played hard, played well."

To light the lamp in your first career NHL game puts McLaughlin in pretty exclusive company, but the undrafted free agent left his fingerprints all over Boston’s 8-1 thrashing of the Devils. 

McLaughlin’s heavy shot has certainly caught the attention of Cassidy and the Bruins — along with Devils netminder Jon Gillies, I imagine — but it was the former BC captain’s attention to detail, willingness to engage on the forecheck and sandpaper style of play that made him one of the more coveted talents out on the market once the Eagles’ season came to a close last month.

"He does all the right things,” Brad Marchand said of McLaughlin. “He works hard. Kind of stays in his lane, but very personable when you talk to him. But he does the things that you want to see from a kid coming from his situation. He's always working hard on the ice, working in the gym after practice. He's there early all the time — one of the first guys here tonight. So he's a pro.”

By the time McLaughlin strode to the podium following Thursday’s thrashing, the deluge of thoughts and emotions had yet to stop pinballing around his head. He still didn’t have time to check his phone and assess the flood of texts, calls and social-media postings piling onto his screen, but he did manage to catch a glimpse on the Garden video board of his parents’ reaction to his first career tally.   

"I saw my mom jumping up and down," McLaughlin said with a smile. "It was pretty cool to see. I'm blessed with having such a supportive family, friends, my teammates were here tonight. That means a lot to me — to see them out here supporting me. So I can't wait to see them after.”

As for where that coveted puck will go?

Where else but the place where those childhood dreams first began to take flight. 

"I'll probably just bring it back to my family — keeping it in my home in Billerica, for sure," he said.