So much of the preseason chatter concerning young Bruins prospects was about Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov when it probably should have been about 20-year-old Matt Poitras coming back from shoulder surgery.
The playmaking pivot put together a solid preseason where he showed he could again help the Bruins this upcoming season and was finally healthy enough to suit up for Saturday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings at TD Garden after missing the first couple of games during the regular season.
“It definitely builds the confidence,” said Poitras after making his season debut for the Bruins. “Hopefully I get the conditioning back a bit better than it was [on Saturday], play whatever minutes are given to me and just keep doing my thing.”
Some puck prognosticators, including even this humble hockey writer, thought that the AHL might be the ideal place for Poitras to start the season, especially after tailing off last year during a long, rigorous first NHL season prior to his season-ending shoulder injury.
I apologize, just went back and reviewed the clip. You are absolutely correct. It was just your buddy Haggs, who continuously talked Providence all summer long.
— |GC| (@_gc24) October 13, 2024
Tough day to be him. pic.twitter.com/UrELdLZrFw
But now I’m happy to say, for the fortunate Bruins, I was dead wrong about Poitras based on the small sample size of preseason and one very strong regular season game.
Poitras has looked and played like an NHL player, and at that one that’s got a very bright future ahead of him if he can keep improving on his speed, stamina and the surprising strength he has in a very average-sized NHL frame.
“He just seems like he’s even more patient this year, which is impressive,” said Brad Marchand. “He’s shown a lot of growth. He’s only going to get better. He’s missed some time. He has young legs.
“But the fact he can hold onto pucks the way he does at his age is very impressive.”
Poitras centered a third line of Justin Brazeau and Trent Frederic to great effect during the game and then dazzled during 3-on-3 overtime when he was out on the ice with David Pastrnak and Mason Lohrei.
The playmaking, skill, vision and creativity was evident throughout the shift and the game ended with Poitras setting things in motion before Pastrnak and Lohrei worked the give-and-go for the game-winning strike. Sure, Pastrnak potted the game-winning goal when it was all said and done, but a huge factor in the winning strike was the skill and vision both Poitras and Lohrei showed throughout the sequence.
PASTAAAAAA 🍝
— NHL (@NHL) October 12, 2024
David Pastrnak wins it for the @NHLBruins in @Energizer overtime! #NHLFaceOff pic.twitter.com/5grHXL7FSW
One could almost tell as soon as those three were out on the ice during the 3-on-3 OT that the good would soon be decided in their favor as they showed the kind of puck possession that is deadly these days in overtime.
“Right in the middle of that shift I was thinking to myself ‘oh my gosh, I am on the ice with these kids.’ I couldn’t even catch up with them, so that’s what I was thinking,” said a smiling Pastrnak. “When I was out there, I recognized who I was out there with and that I had some skating to do if I was going to catch up with them.”
It would appear that the work Poitras put in to get stronger and to improve his skating has paid dividends, and perhaps the shoulder injury and ensuing rehab did him some good in preparing for an important sophomore NHL season. Based on a small sample size, he looks even better than last year and far ahead of fellow youngsters like Lysell and Merkulov at this point.
“If anything, I think he’s going to be much better than last year,” said Pastrnak. “First of all, he has a little bit of experience from last season. He had a bad injury, which, on the other hand, gave him a lot of time to work and get stronger.
“For a young kid like him, summer is important. He had a good summer. So far, you can see he’s well prepared and he’s playing well. It’s incredible how strong he is on the puck for a guy his size. That is one thing that sticks out the most. It’s hard to take the puck away from him and that’s pretty impressive for a guy that size.”
The OT game-winner put the exclamation point on an encouraging afternoon for Poitras, who was solid in 16:05 of ice time with three shot attempts and a couple of takeaways where he also set up a number of offensive chances with his vision and uncanny ability to win puck battles despite not being close to the biggest guy on the ice. The game was an encouraging sign that Poitras will once again be able to help the Black and Gold offensively again this season, and that he’s been able to take another step in his development as a talented young center in Boston’s employ.
Certainly, Jim Montgomery was impressed by the work done by Poitras after it was all over, and what it means for the Black and Gold this season.
“For his first game back in eight months, special,” said Montgomery of Poitras. “I thought that’s the best game he’s played as an NHL player, [and that’s] including some two-goal games last year.”
That’s a ringing endorsement from a coach that’s seen a young player clearly do the work to not only get back to where he was last season as a promising teen prodigy but show that better things are ahead for Poitras and the B’s at the NHL level.
ONE TIMERS
*Solid start for the Boston College hockey team with a 3-0 win over Michigan, but mixed results for the Bruins prospects skating for the Eagles this season. Oskar Jellvik scored one of the three goals and had a dominant seven shot attempts in the game, but 2024 first-round pick Dean Letourneau struggled a bit in his first game with one shot on net and an 0-for-10 performance in the faceoff circle as the third-line center. The role is to be expected for the raw, talented Letourneau and should allow him to develop and grow as a freshman in a really competitive environment that it appeared was going to be challenging for him based on what we all saw at Bruins development camp. Andre Gasseau was kept off the board for the Eagles as well as Jellvik, Will Vote and Ryan Leonard were dominant forces for BC.
*The Bruins continue to figure out their roster under the salary cap now that they have cost certainty with Jeremy Swayman holding an $8.25 million salary cap hit for the next eight seasons. Tyler Johnson is skating with the group in Boston but isn’t traveling with the team and hasn’t been signed to this point in the season after performing very well in the preseason on a veteran camp tryout.
The expectation is that the B’s are going to eventually sign Johnson once they’re able to carve out the cap space based on injured reserve usage or other means, or they would have cut Johnson loose at this point. Don’t forget that Danton Heinen didn’t actually sign with the Bruins until Oct. 30 last season when the Bruins were already eight games into the regular season, so these things do take some time for the Black and Gold.
While it bodes well for Johnson thus far that Max Jones and Riley Tufte haven’t really done all that much with their auditions at the third line wing spot, 20-year-old Matt Poitras is also now very much in the mix after such a strong debut in Saturday’s overtime win against the Los Angeles Kings.