Poitras Set for Saturday Night Homecoming

BOSTON – Roughly a year ago, Matt Poitras was still just a fan of the NHL.

Sure, by that time he was a Boston Bruins draft pick, but when he returned home for Christmas break in 2022, him and his father, Phil, did what so many Toronto natives do around the holidays: take in a Maple Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena.

This holiday season, however, Poitras won’t be watching from the stands. On Saturday night, when the Bruins battle the Leafs in an Atlantic Division showdown, those in attendance will be watching him.

“It’s pretty surreal, just thinking last year during Christmas break, me and my dad went to watch a game…and now I’m going to be playing there. It’s pretty crazy,” Poitras said following Friday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena.

Poitras will be making the most of his trip to Toronto, which is about 30 miles from where he grew up in Ajax, Ontario. While he spent some time with his dad during the Bruins’ recent Fathers Trip, he hasn’t had the chance to see the rest of his family very much since the season began.

“It’s going to be nice just to get back, basically, home. I’m going to dinner with them tonight,” said Poitras. “I haven’t really seen them. I saw my dad on the Dads Trip but other than after a game I haven’t really seen my mom or anything like that. So, it’s going to be nice to kind of sit down and talk.”

While there is sure to be some added emotion, the 19-year-old is aiming to make it as normal a game day as possible.

“It’s going to be pretty cool to take it all in during warmups, but when the puck drops, we’ll be dialed in,” said Poitras. “Just play it like every other game.”

Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he doesn’t feel the need to have any kind of pep talk with Poitras, noting that when a player returns home, he believes you must “let him enjoy the excitement.”

“Make sure that you're getting your sleep, but besides that, if he's going home to have mom's favorite meal, I think that's just great, right?” said Montgomery. “You should spend time with your family. And it's special to me what he's doing [Saturday] night. Embrace the moment, and just make sure he's thinking about his process that makes him individually successful for our team to be successful.”

Poitras enters Saturday night with points in back-to-back games after a slower stretch that saw him post just two points over his previous nine contests. The pivot scored his fifth goal of the season on Monday in Columbus, before picking up a nifty assist on Danton Heinen’s opening tally in the B’s 3-0 win over the Sharks on Thursday. With Heinen and Brad Marchand on his flanks, Poitras seemed to have some added juice.

“I felt pretty good,” said Poitras. “Just hold on to pucks and try to make plays, which is my game. So, I’m just going to keep building that confidence and keep trying to do those same things.”

It’s been a work in progress for Poitras as he maneuvers through his first season in the National Hockey League, particularly as he adjusts to so many games in a short amount of time.

“It’s definitely different, it takes a toll on your body,” said Poitras. “For me, I try to take care of my body as much as possible, try to get to bed early so I can endure this tough spot in the schedule. We’ve played a lot of games over the last week, two weeks.“I’m kind of a young guy, so I still feel pretty good.I can kind of get through these back-to-backs and all that.”

Montgomery said he has not yet seen the moment get too big for the young centerman.

“Yeah, to be honest, I don't think he was ever distracted by the bright lights,” said Montgomery. “I think it's a man's league, it's the best league in the world, and here he is doing a good job for us, helping win hockey games. I think there's going to be moments where it's hard, and what we're seeing is a player that's fought through the hard and is getting better.”

While Poitras played well between Marchand and Heinen against the Sharks, Montgomery said that because of Toronto’s Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner line, he may toggle his trios a bit based on Saturday’s matchup. As such, Poitras saw time between James van Riemsdyk and Trent Frederic during Friday’s practice.

“It’s just the matchup. It's also that I want to see what it looks like,” said Montgomery. “We were doing a couple of drills where there was line rushes, so I want to see the chemistry. I haven't tried Matt Poitras and James van Riemsdyk, so I wanted to see what that would look like, and I haven't seen Heinen go with Coyle and Marchy yet, so we just want to see what it looks like off the rush, because it was rush drills.”

Boston’s bench boss also had Poitras at the net front on the B’s second power-play unit.

“It's just trying a different look,” said Montgomery. “He’s a real crafty player, so we think him being at the net front – and it's not him just being [there], he'll move. Charlie [Coyle] will be at the net front sometimes, it's just something that we want to work on, because we haven’t worked on it before.”

Frederic Steps Up

Trent Frederic was eager to step up.

After Brad Marchand was drilled from behind into the boards by Givani Smith late in the second period on Thursday night against the Sharks, Derek Forbort made it known to Smith that the hit – only a two-minute boarding penalty – was not appreciated with a quick tackle-style takedown in the corner. A few moments later, however, Frederic felt that a further response was needed and dropped the gloves with Smith off a faceoff.

“You don’t want people hitting Marchy,” said Frederic. “He’s our captain. Everybody loves him in here, and he’s obviously a great player. You don’t want him getting hit like that.

“A lot of guys have stood up. [Derek Forbort] did it in Florida. We have a bunch of guys who can do it. That time, I kind of called my own number, and guys are capable of doing it, so it’s good.”

Marchand – and the Bruins as a whole – were appreciative of Frederic’s efforts.

“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’s really good at, is answering the bell. He did a great job there and had a great fight, and we really fed off that.”

“You love it. Freddy’s a well-respected teammate because he does everything. He can to defend his teammates and also to play the game the right way,” said Montgomery. “His physicality is much needed on our group.”

Swayman’s Bounce Back

Following a rough stretch that concluded with him being pulled on Monday in Columbus, Jeremy Swayman got a chance to rebound right away with another start on Thursday night against the Sharks. The netminder did not disappoint as he put forth a strong 26-save outing for his 11^th career shutout in his 100^th career game.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to do, is make sure I’m keeping the puck out of the net,” said Swayman. “It feels good, but at the same time, plenty to work on still. You want to use this as a momentum piece moving forward, we’ve got a lot of games coming up. So that’s a good bounce back… but again, it’s a new day tomorrow.”

Swayman is now 62-24-9 for his career. The 62 wins rank as the third most in franchise history through that milestone behind Tiny Thompson (71) and Frank Brimsek (67). Of the 339 goaltenders in NHL history to reach the 100-game milestone, Swayman is one of 17 to win at least 61 of their first 100, per NHL Stats.

Since 1983-84, the backstop also has the fourth-most wins (62) through 100 games, ranking behind only Detroit’s Chris Osgood (69), Philadelphia’s Bob Froese (67), and Edmonton’s Andy Moog (63). He is tied with the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin, St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington, and Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray.

“I love the way Jeremy responded,” said Montgomery. “The way I expect him to respond. He is a battler, he's a competitor. That's why I love having him between the pipes.”

Wait, There’s More

• Montgomery on if the Bruins expect that Toronto will look for retribution on Marchand for a collision that injured Timothy Liljegren in the last matchup between the teams. “The same way we did in Florida [with Charlie McAvoy], we're going to make sure we're all in there together if anything does occur. But we know we’ve got a hockey game and we’re pretty close in the standings…and two teams that are expected to be near the top of the division. So, this is a big game going into Toronto on a Saturday night. We're focused on our task at hand.”
• Montgomery on Jakub Lauko’s game since his return from injury: “What we’ve seen here in the last three or four games is him playing at the pace, and playing north like he does, creating turnovers in the D-zone, moving pucks whether he's transporting it or supporting it, negating icings because of his speed, self-chipping pucks, getting pucks down to the goal line, possessing it and allowing us to build our O-zone time. He’s playing good hockey right now, and his confidence is building.”