There’s been a fairly open question as to where the toughness is going to come from within the Bruins roster now that Milan Lucic’s future in Black and Gold is very much in question.
It wasn’t the biggest issue on Boston’s improvement list during their recent three-game losing spell as they surrendered an unsightly 17 goals in three games, but it was certainly on the docket for a hockey club that’s been far from perfect despite a gaudy 15-4-3 record.
It’s safe to say they are not going to intimidate anybody as currently constituted, but the B’s did show a little something in Thursday night’s 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks at TD Garden. Jeremy Swayman was back to being stellar with a 28-save shutout, the defense was stout, and the situational scoring was solid as the B’s played smart, simple hockey against a San Jose team that clearly one of the worst in the NHL.
“We just started playing through bodies. We started playing harder,” said Brad Marchand, when asked about what changed about Boston’s effort from the second period on against San Jose. “We started playing a little softer than we needed to be over the last few games, and we weren’t hard to play against. It’s something that we’ve always taken a lot of pride in and we kind of got away from that. So we got back to being hard to play against as a group.”
But it was Trent Frederic’s second-period bout with a tough customer in Givani Smith that revealed the beating heart underneath the collective Black and Gold sweaters. Earlier in the period Smith had drilled Marchand from behind with a cheap shot into the side boards and clearly taken a liberty with the Boston captain.
Givani Smith takes the first half.
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) December 1, 2023
Trent Frederic takes the second: pic.twitter.com/9kUTjIP7uk
Maybe Smith was trying to get Marchand to lose his cool while knowing teammate Kyle Burroughs was going off for a delayed high-sticking penalty on Matt Poitras, but it didn’t really matter what the reasoning behind it was as the Bruins left winger got slammed into the glass. Smith wallpapered Marchand from behind, and immediately got a reaction from Danton Heinen and Derek Forbort going after him after the boarding hit.
That quick, largely performative reaction has been the extent of Boston defending teammates in the last handful of games to borderline hits, and it frankly hasn’t been enough.
This time, Frederic made sure it was addressed by tangling with Smith in the final minute of the second period as the B’s carried a 2-0 lead. It was a move that Marchand greatly appreciated, and one that probably should have happened in Columbus too after David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, among others, got the rough treatment from the Blue Jackets.
“I have a lot of respect for Freddy,” said Marchand. “He did a great job stepping in there and it’s one of the things that he is really good at…answering the bell. He did a great job there and had a great fight, and we really fed off that.
“We’ve always had that and always taken a great deal of pride in that. That comes from having really good chemistry in the room and really caring about each other off the ice. That always translates into the way we play for each other. You see that a lot with our group and that was another great example of that.”
Frederic caught a couple of big punches early in the scuffle, but finished strong landing a couple of big overhand punches as Smith went down to the ice. The message was sent not to mess with Boston’s captain and Frederic performed a difficult job that probably going to have to be his role more often than not with Lucic out of the mix.
The Bruins power forward said all the right things afterward about the B’s showing team toughness when it’s called for, of course.
“You don’t want people hitting Marchy. He’s our captain, everybody loves him in here and he’s obviously a great player, so we don’t want him getting hit like that,” said Frederic. “A lot of guys have stood up. [Forbort] did it in Florida and we have a bunch of guys that can do it. So that time I called my own number, but guys are capable of doing it…so that’s good.
“A lot of guys can do it and have done it. Everybody likes each other [on this team] more than any other team I’ve been on. So it’s just one of those things in hockey that we get to do when we disagree with something that happens on the ice.”
But let’s face it.
The 25-year-old Frederic is 6-foot-2, 210-pounds and now has 32 pro hockey fights on his scorecard in his career with bouts against legit NHL heavyweights like Smith, Tom Wilson and Marcus Foligno among them. It’s going to have to be Frederic’s role to fill right now along with his dependable third line spot on a big, physical puck possession forward trio with James van Riemsdyk and Charlie Coyle.
The lift given to the Boston Bruins was palpable when Frederic stepped up on Thursday night and was acknowledged by his head coach, among others.
“You love it. Freddy is a well-respected teammate because he does everything he can do to defend his teammates,” said Montgomery. “And also [his willingness] to play the game the right way. His physicality is much needed in our group.”
It may not be widely remembered as a notable moment for the Bruins when we pull back and look at this season in its entirety five months down the road, but Frederic’s ready willingness to stand up for his teammates is going to be a considerable factor for this hockey team unless they can find another tough guy to add to the B’s roster.
Frederic did his job in a big way in Thursday night’s win just as so many other Bruins players did in a solid, needed victory to get them off their losing slide.
