Earlier in the season, it would have been hard to imagine the Boston Bruins exploding for 10 goals without sharpshooting forward Morgan Geekie even registering a single point in the blowout victory.
It was understandable on Saturday afternoon in Boston’s 10-2 win over the New York Rangers as Geekie had to leave the game after the first period for “a family emergency” according to Marco Sturm, so the hope is obviously that everything is okay for the humble 27-year-old Manitoba native. But Saturday’s game also marked nine straight games for Geekie without a goal in a slump that began during Boston’s six-game losing streak and has extended into the New Year for the B’s leading goal-scorer this season.
Geekie is still tied for fifth in the NHL in goals this season, with 25 goals scored in 45 games, and isn’t far off the 50-goal pace he’s been on all year, but it also felt like the 23.6 percent shooting clip he was on wasn’t going to be sustainable for the entire season.
Geekie said he wasn’t overthinking it, but it’s got to be difficult not to given how much the goals have flowed during the calendar year of 2025.
“Just try not to overthink it. I hit a couple of posts in Vancouver that could have gone either way. Just been fighting it a little bit. You try to change the color of your tape for a little bit, or your sticks, or something like that. Try not to put too much weight on it,” said Geekie, who also learned he was left off Team Canada’s Olympic roster during the goal-scoring slump as well. “I feel like everything I’ve been pretty luck that everything has been going in for the last couple of years, so it was about time that this was bound to happen.
“[It’s a little different] when you are used to pucks going in. But I think it’s just a mental thing. You just keep putting pucks on net and giving yourself chances to score. Obviously, the tides will turn at some point and you need to stick with it.”
One thing that this humble hockey writer has noticed is that Geekie is trying to make plays and create offense rather than be the finisher to plays, and that might be a byproduct of him being separated from David Pastrnak in the forward combos. It’s resulted in more giveaways and turnovers rather than goal-scoring plays, and also with Geekie handling the puck further and further away from the net.
That’s something that head coach Sturm has noticed while pointing out a player like Viktor Arvidsson that’s been creating offense for others, and sometimes for himself, by simply hustling and getting to the front of the net regularly.
“What I would recommend for him to do, is play like [Arvidsson did against Calgary on Thursday]. Why did Casey [Mittelstadt] score? Why did Mason [Lohrei] score? Because of Arvidsson,” said Sturm. “Yes, he didn’t score, but he was around the net the whole night. That’s how you get out of it. Be more in those tough areas. You’re going to get some bounces. You’re going to be more involved.
"It’s going to be on my list, just to grab him [at practice] and show him a few things. He’s still a young player, still needs to learn to deal with that and come out of that.”
Marco Sturm on Morgan Geekie trying to pull out of his 8-game goalless drought: “This kid, he’s awesome. He’s just going through it. … I just want to see that bite a little bit out of him.” pic.twitter.com/RVy93nWF8o
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) January 10, 2026
The other thing about Geekie is that he’s not a really high-volume shooter like Pastrnak that gets a ton of chances each and every single game, so he’s also been a player that needs to score on every Grade-A chance that he receives during a game. So there isn’t a lot of margin for error or bad luck in his productive offensive game.
Sturm wasn’t sure postgame if Geekie was going to be available for Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden, so it remains to be seen if the winger will get another chance this weekend to bust out of his holiday slump.
ONE TIMERS
• Quite an offensive explosion in Saturday’s win over the Rangers with David Pastrnak collecting a career-high six assists, Marat Khusnutdinov exploding for four goals and Pavel Zacha totalling the first hat trick of his NHL career. Pastrnak showed how good he can be as a playmaker and Khusnutdinov continues to develop into a well-rounded NHL performer that can offensively justify his place in a top-6 role with his blazing speed and skill level, but Zacha has been a tremendously consistent player for this Bruins team all season.
🚨 WE GOT 10. #NHLBruins Marat Khusnutdinov with his 4th goal of the game as Boston defeats #NYR 10-2.
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) January 10, 2026
First time since 1988 Bruins have scored ten goals in a game. pic.twitter.com/vnJz9qzM1l
Zacha was joking postgame that he never dreamed he would be the third star in an NHL game where he registered a hat trick, but such was the wildness of the Saturday matinee against the Blueshirts.
“It was strange for me too because I’d never scored one before,” said Zacha of a hat trick where there was a delayed reaction of fans tossing their hats because one of his goals was awarded by the NHL Situation Room after the first period had already ended. “It’s a good feeling. I’m happy that it was during a win where we had a great game as a team. It feels good for everybody to have a game like this.
"You don’t see it too often that two guys get hat tricks in the same game. I’m happy it happened and super happy for [Khusnutdinov]. I’m just trying to play a good two-way game, but today when I scored two in the first period I knew there would be a chance to get a third.”
Zacha is third on the team with his 13 goals and is on pace for 24 goals and 56 points that would give him a strong, strong season for a team that saw him enveloped in some trade rumors at the beginning of this season. Given his consistent effort levels shift-to-shift and the way his defensive style lends itself to the system that Sturm is preaching for this Bruins team – and the closeness he has to Pastrnak as a fellow Czech countryman – it feels like those trade rumors should be long in the rear view mirror at this point.
“To have that luxury as a coach to put him in different situations, going back years ago it wasn’t like that before,” said Sturm. “Modern players can play both [wing and center] and he’s just a veteran player that has the experience. I don’t have to teach him a lot of things. He knows how to get the job done.”
• Elias Lindholm exited the game with an injury on Saturday afternoon along with Geekie’s departure for family reasons, so the Bruins win was even more impressive while doing it down a couple of forwards for most of the game. That status for both players against the Penguins, in another important Eastern Conference game with playoff weight on it, on Sunday is unknown at this point.
“Lindholm, we just want to make sure. We were up a bit, and he has little issues that are nagging him. I don’t think it’s anything serious, so game time decision tomorrow,” said Sturm. “Geekie had a family emergency so he had to leave, but it’s all good. But we have to watch and see if he comes back [for Sunday]. Game time decision.”