Montgomery: Poitras is ‘Sticking Around’ Past Nine-Game Window

BOSTON – Jim Montgomery didn’t have to hesitate.

When asked if the Bruins had made a decision regarding whether Matt Poitras would remain with the club or head back to the OHL, Boston’s bench boss was definitive.

“He’s sticking around,” Montgomery said during an optional practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Tuesday morning.

“He earned it. I think we’re comfortable with him. There’s still no guarantees here the rest of the year. But we feel the way that he’s progressed that for the time being he’s gonna be a Bruin.

“And he’s helping us win hockey games and that’s the most important thing. He’s still 19, so we’re gonna be cautious.”

Poitras has burst onto the scene this fall. After a stellar preseason, the 19-year-old centerman has carried over his breakout performance with five points (three goals, two assists) in nine games, which acted as the threshold for Poitras to be sent back to Guelph or remain with Boston and burn the first year of his entry-level contract.

“He's definitely made the best case possible for himself,” said Bruins captain Brad Marchand. “He's a heck of a player. He's gonna have a very long career. He does all the right things on and off the ice to be a good pro. It's very impressive to see at his age. And he's a great kid, he's a lot of fun to have around, always happy. I mean, how can you not be at 19 in the NHL?

“He's so much fun to watch with how poised he is with the puck and the confidence that he has it his age and the way he can kind of see the game already. His future is very bright. We're also very lucky to have him in our organization. He's definitely made a great case [to stay].”

Montgomery said that what has been most appealing about Poitras is that each time it’s appeared he might be hitting a wall, he has bounced back and passed the next test.

“What’s appealing to us is every time you start to think this might be too much, whether it was exhibition or these nine games, he just always finds a way to belong…he just belongs,” said Montgomery.

While his poise and shiftiness certainly standout when it comes to skill, Montgomery said Poitras’ toughness has been the biggest reason he’s been able to keep rebounding.

“I think that’s the No. 1 reason why he’s gonna play a 10th game is because of that,” said Montgomery. “We see the hockey IQ, we see the skill, we see the vision. But if you don’t compete, you don’t have natural second or third effort, especially at a young age, it’s hard to stay in this league and that’s been the quality that’s the best quality as to why we think he’s earned this.”

Poitras – as well as fellow rookie centerman Johnny Beecher – has also brought energy and excitement to the players around him.

“We always feel that young guys bring you youthful, innocent energy that lifts everybody up,” said Montgomery. “It reminds you of your first days in the NHL because of how excited you were to go on the road…oh my God, you’re on a plane, you’re not on a bus. All those things. It’s good, that’s why we have a couple players this year that are new to the league and young and they’re brining us that kind of energy.

“In fact, we need more of it. The personality side, the players see that more than we do. To most of these guys, I look like an older brother, but to him I look like a dad probably. He’s not share much of his personality around me.”

Comeback Against the Cats

The Bruins all had similar sentiments following their 3-2 comeback win over the Panthers on Monday night, saying the victory showed a lot of toughness and resiliency, particularly without Matt Grzelcyk for much of the game because of an upper-body injury and McAvoy down the stretch after the blue liner was ejected – and, especially, given the way things ended against Florida last spring.

Montgomery: “It was a big character when we lose Grizzy halfway through the first, we're down to five D. You have a five-minute major you have to kill off and you're down to four D. Just tremendous character by our four defensemen that gutted it out and also just our team coming back from to nothing against a real good team and being able to come away and find a way to win.”

Marchand: “I just think that there's a culture here that we have, and guys come in and buy in right away…it’s not easy when you have that many new bodies to define that chemistry early, but the biggest thing is that everyone competes hard and works, it just falls into place…we have a much different group, a lot of new guys and we're trying to build something completely different than last year. Obviously, there's a foundation this team has been built long before this year, and this is something we want to continue to improve upon.”

Zacha: “Yeah, it was [a special win]. I think it was a hard game to come back after the [first] period that we had. I think we have to have a little bit better start against a team like this…it was an important win, especially after last year…this game meant a little bit more than usual. You just want to beat teams like this, especially after playoffs, and we're happy that we won.”

Ullmark: “I started thinking about it a little bit before the game and also like a day prior. It’s always fun to play them. Obviously, we all know what happened last year, as well, so obviously it’s going to be a little bit more of an emotional game for us, at least. I thought it was a very gutsy win, and we stuck with it all 60-plus minutes.”

Wait, There’s More

• Grzelcyk left Monday night’s game in the first period and did not return. Montgomery said the blue liner will miss “a couple weeks, it looks like.” McAvoy was set for a phone hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for an illegal check to the head/interference on Florida’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
• As such, Montgomery said the Bruins will need to call up a defenseman or two from Providence though no decisions had been made as of Tuesday morning. “We’re still waiting on getting some information back,” he said. “We’re going to have to call up players but we just haven’t made decisions on that yet.”
• Montgomery added that Mason Lohrei is a consideration for a call-up: “He’s definitely one of the players being considered,” said Montgomery. “I think he had a really good weekend this weekend. We’re excited about the player because of what he did in camp… we’re gonna bring up the best available because they’ve earned it down in Providence or earned it training camp or our familiarity with them.”
• The Bruins penalty kill continued to be stellar against the Panthers, going 3-for-3, including a clinical five-minute kill of McAvoy’s major penalty in the third period. “There is always going to be that opportunity for the opponents to score a couple goals just because the penalty kill is still going…even though there’s a goal scored, so that’s why it was so good for us that we never gave them the momentum,” said Linus Ullmark. “We always got the puck out in 15, 20 seconds, so they always had to redo breakouts and come in…we kept them away from establishing something. I’ve got to give all the credit to the PK guys who did a tremendous job throughout the game and not just the five-minute one.”
• Ullmark (35 saves) improved to 4-0-1 with a 1.77 goals against average and .939 save percentage. “Just him competing his rear end off in the crease,” Montgomery said of the netminder’s performance vs. Florida. “There's a couple of second and third attempts that they had. I think there's only one that he had to make a save on that was a huge save. I think during the penalty kill where he uses, I think, it was the right pad. Again, he's been spectacular here since I've been here. Our goaltending is why we're 8-0-1.”
• Montgomery used Danton Heinen, who was signed to a one-year contract on Monday afternoon, on defense in overtime with Grzelcyk and McAvoy both out of the game and the 28-year-old was part of the 2-on-1 on Zacha’s winning goal. Heinen played 9:00 and was a plus-1 with two shots on goal. ““Looked rusty. We're down or defense we’re exhausted,” said Montgomery, who coached Heinen at the University of Denver. “I know I've used him there before in college and I didn't know who else could go back there. So, I put him up there in the overtime and he did a good job. He was driving back post when we scored, great play by Pavel Zacha.”