Matt Poitras shows why he is a big part of this Bruins equation
One of the things Matt Poitras has said he wants to improve in his second NHL season is keeping his shifts short in order to avoid mental and physical fatigue that could lead to him making mistakes or taking harmful hits.
So, ironically, in his first regular-season game in eight and a half months, Poitras helped set up the overtime winner at the end of a shift that was probably too long.
Exhausted and barely moving, Poitras collected the puck inside the offensive blue line and patiently held as he waited for a teammate to get open. David Pastrnak did, and Poitras fed him the puck before finally changing off. A couple seconds later, after a nice give-and-go with Mason Lohrei, Pastrnak beat Darcy Kuemper and gave the Boston Bruins a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
"I was ready to change. I was pretty tired," Poitras said. "So, just played it cross-ice to Pasta, changed, and I looked back and Pasta scored."
Winning assist aside, it was an impressive season debut for the 20-year-old Poitras, and an immediate reminder of how important he can be for these 2024-25 Bruins.
Poitras had not played a regular-season game since a shoulder injury suffered in January cut short his promising rookie year. He missed the end of training camp and Boston's first two games this season while recovering from another injury.
If you watched Saturday's game without knowing any of that, you would have no idea that Poitras was supposed to be shaking off some rust. There didn't seem to be any. He was the Bruins' most dangerous offensive player most of the day, especially early on as much of the team got off to a sleepy start.
On his first shift, Poitras nearly went coast-to-coast in transition before pulling up and feeding Trent Frederic for a shot that got deflected wide. On his next shift, Poitras drew a high-sticking penalty. Later in the first period, he created another scoring chance off the rush as he carried into the offensive zone and made a nice cut into the slot before firing a shot that got deflected wide.
Poitras drew another penalty in the second period. He set up Charlie McAvoy for a scoring chance that Kuemper denied with a good glove save. He set up Lohrei at the end of the period for a shot that hit the crossbar. Just before the winning goal in overtime, he set up Pastrnak for a one-timer that went just wide.
"Matty Poitras, for his first game back in eight months… special," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "I thought that's the best game he's played as an NHL player, including some two-goal games last year."
Analyzing the Bruins' first two games, the number one thing that needed to improve was Boston's defensive-zone coverage. But number two probably would have been the play of the second and third lines, which had struggled to produce much of anything offensively.
Poitras completely changes that group. He injects some creativity, playmaking and poise with the puck that there isn't enough of otherwise. On Saturday, he did it while centering the third line with Frederic and Justin Brazeau on his wings. With all due respect to Max Jones and Riley Tufte, who each got a look on the third line in the first two games of the season, this was a significant talent upgrade. The Frederic-Poitras-Brazeau line was arguably Boston's best Saturday, with the Bruins out-attempting the Kings 7-2 during their shifts and registering an expected goals share of 95.5%.
"Offensively, it makes us so much more dynamic," Montgomery said when asked what it would mean to have Poitras playing like this. "To have three lines, really four lines that can score … that can overwhelm you. It gets you excited."
It wouldn't be surprising if Poitras gets a look at second-line right wing next to Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle at some point. The temptation has to be there for Montgomery after watching Marchand, Coyle and Morgan Geekie have another relatively quiet game (Marchand did set up Elias Lindholm for the Bruins' first goal of the game during a 4-on-4). More power-play time is probably in his future as well – Poitras only got one shift on the man advantage Saturday after not really practicing there yet.
Montgomery and the Bruins will be cautious with Poitras. First and foremost, they want to make sure he's going to be able to hold up physically for a full NHL season, hence the focus on shorter shifts. Because if he can hold up, he's going to be an important part of Boston's recipe for success this year.
