NHL Notebook: Trent Frederic bringing the power to the B's taken at TD Garden (Bruins)

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BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 06: Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic (11) plays the puck for his first goal of the evening during a game between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning on January 6, 2024, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

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NHL Notebook: Trent Frederic bringing the power to the B's

By Joe Haggerty

Jan 7, 2024 • 1:41 pm

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Could the Boston Bruins finally be developing the power forward they’ve sorely needed all along?

Coming off a season where he posted career highs for the Black and Gold, 25-year-old Trent Frederic is doing it again this year while amidst a torrid stretch punctuated by a pair of goals in a 7-3 win for the Bruins over the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden on Saturday night.

Perhaps the best example of Frederic’s physical impact wasn’t even a goal he scored: Emil Martinsen-Lilleberg tried to throw a big hit on Frederic in the neutral zone and bounced off him just before Frederic posted him up while screening Andrei Vasilevskiy as a Charlie McAvoy point blast whistled in for a score.

It all played into two goals, a team-best plus-4 rating and three hits and three shots on net in 16:23 of quality ice time that has helped Boston develop more depth up front when they needed players to emerge.

The big night for “Freddy” even included an early power play goal that stands as the first PP point of his NHL career as he’s clearly earning the trust of the B’s coaching staff that transforms into power play time and top-6 responsibility.

“I think his confidence has increased,” said Jim Montgomery. “His poise with the puck…and he’s got tremendous hands. In practice he scores more than anyone except for [David Pastrnak]. I think it’s coming. The kind of player he is, he’s gotta keep being really focused on his habits and details and moving his feet. If he’s doing those things, I expect him to keep scoring like he is.

“It’s just his athletic ability. He can finish, he’s got great hands, and he’s a big body. The reason I think he can continue to finish is he’s putting himself in situations to score. He’s not deferring anymore, he’s taking charge.”

Frederic now has six goals and 11 points in the last 13 games for the Bruins, and he’s been doing it with different linemates while bouncing between center and the wing and giving the B’s much-needed versatility and production up front. He’s obviously played a big role in an offensive explosion for the B’s where they’ve posted 30 goals in the six games (five goals per game) coming out of the NHL holiday break.

“A lot of is just confidence. It’s not something that I haven’t had, but it’s just having the confidence to look up, have the puck on certain parts of your stick and, I’ve talked about this a lot, but it’s [Montgomery] putting confidence in me and it’s kind of grown over time.

“It’s kind of hard to gauge your confidence level, but it’s been going in so that’s nice. Sometimes when it’s not going in, you’re shooting it, and you never think it’s going to go in. Now you shoot it, and you think everything is going to go in, so having that kind of confidence is huge. It’s what I’ve had recently so it’s been nice.”

It’s interesting to track the 25-year-old’s NHL progress in a league where it can take a few years for a prospective “power forward” to develop into a finished product. It took Washington Capitals All-Star Tom Wilson six years to develop into a consistent 20-goal scoring threat at the NHL level that is known as much as for offensive production as he was for the dangerous hits and borderline behavior on the ice.

Nobody is crowning Frederic an All-Star right now, obviously, and he’ll need to continue producing to become a reliable 20-goal scorer that also consistently throws his weight around in a really effective way. But his teammates are noticing the work he puts in, the upward trajectory he’s on and the smiles he puts on others in the Bruins dressing room given his good-natured attitude about things.

“It’s great. You can see how growth every single year, he’s played here,” said Charlie Coyle. “He’s such a versatile player, he can play and up and down the lineup and he can play center or wing. He’s such an important piece of our team. What he brings is that he can play any type of game.

“He’s got the skill, he’s got the work ethic, he’s got compete and the grit, and those are the kinds of guys you want on your team. I think any team would want a guy like Trent. For him to build the confidence and see more pucks go in and contribute in that way, it’s always been in there, but I think he’s really starting to hone in and cash in on those opportunities.”

The initial thought about Frederic this season was that the presence of somebody like Milan Lucic might be the final piece needed to help the youngster develop into that type of player for the Black and Gold. But it seems that Frederic was on that path all along as he continues to ascend to a higher level of play for the Boston Bruins that they most definitely need out of him this season and beyond.

ONE TIMERS

1. Some really interesting thoughts from Brad Marchand this week after watching his fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby put up a three-point night and score the game-winner in Boston against the Bruins. The 36-year-old is enjoying one of his best seasons for the Pens but isn’t perhaps some of his just credit because of the ESPN-levels of hype surrounding wunderkind Connor Bedard. “He’s still one of the best in the world,” the Boston Bruins captain said. “He’s not really getting the credit he deserves right now. A lot of the attention is on the younger guys, but if you look at the details of the game and the full 200 feet, he’s by far the best player in the league. He and (Nathan) MacKinnon, two good Nova Scotia boys. [Crosby] is not as flashy as some of the higher-end guys. He plays hard and direct. He plays a winning way. The young guys are getting the attention. If you look at the attention Bedard is getting compared to Sid, they’re not at the same level right now. Bedard is a helluva player for his age, but Crosby is one of the best to ever play the game.”

2. Decent first stint for Georgii Merkulov at the NHL level as he was sent back down to the AHL this weekend for make way for Jesper Boqvist on the Bruins roster. Boqvist had arguably his best game for the Bruins skating in a fourth-line role with Oskar Steen and Jakub Lauko, and Merkulov can go back to the AHL in the top-6 role he’s more suited for. He finished with three shots on net and a plus-1 along with no points in four games but didn’t have a point after hitting a post in the game vs. the Red Wings. With Matt Poitras returning from World Junior, it felt like the writing was on the wall for Merkulov headed back to Providence.

3. Impressive showing for Team USA at the World Junior, and more specifically from the loaded class of Boston College players including Will Smith, Gabe Perreault, Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Leonard. It clearly underscores how strong college hockey is these days, but also just how much the ADM (American Development Model) for hockey adopted by USA Hockey across the country is building a deep roster of skilled young players with way more skill and talent than they had even 20 years ago.

4. Video of the week: It’s got to be Swedish player Noah Ostlund dabbing in front of the Czech bench after scoring at the World Juniors earlier this week. This is one that my 10-year-old son has been trying to recreate at practice ever since and a reminder that even though these junior players have NHL-level skill, they are still just fun-loving kids underneath those helmets and pads.

5. Happy New Year to all of my hockey followers and readers. You make my world go round and I appreciate every last one of you, even the trolls on Twitter. Take yourselves and take care of each other as the late, great Jerry Springer used to say.

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