In a perfect world, Johnny Beecher would have signed a multi-year contract with the Bruins this summer. A few of his fellow restricted free agents – namely Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei and Marat Khusnutdinov – did just that. So did free-agent additions Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly and Mikey Eyssimont – players Beecher will be battling against for bottom-six playing time.
Beecher re-upped for just one year, though, at a rate of $900,000. The 24-year-old forward knows what that means: That he still has something to prove.
“I mean, I got a one-year contract. At the end of the day, it's an opportunity contract,” Beecher told WEEI.com Wednesday. “So, I gotta go out there and prove to them and prove to myself that I belong here, and it’s my spot in that lineup. I'm confident I can do that.”
Beecher, a first-round pick in 2019, knows why he has to prove that, too: Because last season didn’t go the way he wanted.
“I don’t think anybody can look at my season last year and say that it was a great year by any means,” he said.
Beecher did off to a great start, though. He had six points in the first nine games and found immediate chemistry with linemates Mark Kastelic and Cole Koepke. The fourth line on paper, they were often the team’s best line early on while the rest of the team struggled out of the gates.
“We were flying,” Beecher said of that line. “I think we were kind of the perfect example of what it looks like when you have a good training camp and good offseason.”
The offense soon dried up, though. Beecher scored just once over his final 73 games of the season. He finished the year with three goals, less than half of his total as a rookie the year before. He was taking fewer shots, getting fewer scoring chances, and even throwing fewer hits.
“I think things kind of started to dwindle for us a little bit,” Beecher said. “Our line got broken up, and I think I kind of just lost my mojo a little bit, and just had a tough time kind of bringing it back consistently. I mean, there were some stretches here and there where I felt good and it felt like the first couple games, and then it slipped a little bit.”
Offense isn’t exactly the first line in Beecher’s job description – that would be defense, penalty-killing and faceoffs – but he does need to contribute on the score sheet more than he did last year. Being able to create more chances and take advantage of the ones he gets has been his biggest focus this summer, which Beecher is spending almost entirely in Boston.
“What I'm looking to work on moving forward is just more O-zone stuff,” he said. “Finishing, being able to give myself some more space out there in the O-zone, holding on to pucks, just creating that confidence that the elite players in this league have, and just really trying to be able to kind of hone in on those skills, and hopefully help me produce a little bit more.”
Beecher is also focusing on his conditioning and nutrition so he can be more consistent throughout the season and not have the kind of quiet stretches as the season goes on that he had last year.
“Being a young player in this league, consistency is one of the main things you gotta really work on and focus on,” he said. “So, that'll be a big, big thing for me this summer, just moving forward, and doing a lot of things, trying to figure out different ways to take care of my body. You know, what I eat, how much I sleep, how much I'm drinking water and electrolytes and all the things just so you can feel better on a day to day basis. I mean, you're going to have games where you feel 75 percent, but you gotta play 95 to 100 percent. So, just trying to find ways to kind of manage that.”
Better health should help. Beecher revealed that he had a procedure on his hand after the season to fix an issue that had “been bugging me pretty bad for the last year or two.” He just got cleared to start shooting again in the last couple weeks, but should be 100% well ahead of training camp in September.
If Beecher can make the most of training camp and preseason like he did last year, it could go a long way towards him bouncing back and proving that he does indeed “belong here.” Like just about everyone else on the team, he’s approaching it as a “fresh start.”
“I think it's a fresh start this year,” Beecher said. “I mean, we got new bodies coming in, some new coaching staff. I think at the end of the day, we just kind of have to put last year in the rearview mirror and focus on what's ahead. I mean, obviously last year wasn't what any of us wanted by any means – us, the fans, management. I mean, that's pretty disappointing. So, I think it's just coming in and kind of putting that behind us, and just hit the ground running, and just kind of see what happens.”