Wednesday night is a big one for 19-year-old Bruins center Matt Poitras. It’s the first time he will step onto the ice for a regular-season NHL game. But he hopes it’s just the first of many times he will take the ice in a Bruins jersey this season.
“I mean, it's awesome. It's a dream come true to finally be here and have a chance to play in the NHL, so I’m not going to take it for granted,” Poitras told WEEI’s The Skate Podcast on Tuesday (listen to the full interview above).
“I'm obviously a bit nervous,” Poitras said. “It's like nothing I've ever done before. It's going to be awesome when I get out there and the nerves will fade away after the first shift.”
Poitras survived every round of cuts this Bruins training camp, as he made an impact in each of his five preseason games and drew attention to his skillset. Boston’s 2022 second-round pick hopes that what has gotten him this far will help him succeed at carving out a permanent spot on the Bruins this season.
“I think, for me, nothing changes,” he said. “From the start it's just been like it's a tryout, and I think it'll just continue to be a tryout every practice, every game. For me, I want to be here all year, so I’m trying to make a good impression every time I’m on the ice and hopefully get to stick around for the year.”
Despite the big occasion of his first-ever NHL game on the horizon, it’s been hard for Poitras to take a second and put everything into perspective.
When asked if he has had a chance to let it all sink in, he said, “I don't think so. I think just trying to focus on one thing at a time. I think if I started dwelling too much on, ‘Oh, I'm playing tomorrow,’ I’d just get in my own head.”
Poitras will be under a microscope for the first nine games of the Bruins’ season because after that the team has to decide whether to send him back to his junior team, the Guelph Storm, or activate the first year of his entry-level contract while keeping him in Boston.
The first time it crossed Poitras’s mind that he might make the team this year came when he scored in the Bruins’ first preseason game against the Rangers on Sept. 24.
“In the first preseason game, scoring really was a big confidence boost and kind of helps you feel like, ‘Oh, maybe I can stick here and maybe I belong.’ I think that went a long way where I'm coming on the ice and I'm playing confident, I know I can play at this level,” Poitras said.
Playing to his strengths
Poitras explained that one thing that has given him an advantage in the past is his hockey IQ.
“I've kind of relied on my hockey IQ and compete,” Poitras said. “It all starts with a high hockey IQ and then you can adapt to different systems and play with different players.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery thinks Poitras’s hockey IQ can help him as he transitions into the NHL.
“He’s quickly become adept at our D-zone. It shows how his hockey IQ is so high because he’s learned it quickly,” Montgomery said a day before Poitras’s first regular-season game.
Poitras will focus on continuing to get stronger
As in seasons past, getting stronger is a main focus for the 5-foot-11, 180-pound center, and this season it will be even more important as he competes against NHL players.
“I'm not a big guy, I'm more finesse, but I like to pride myself on winning puck battles in the corner,” Poitras said. “So for me in juniors, and even just this summer, it’s just getting stronger. Just being able to hold my own, and I'm not the heaviest of guys and I'm not tall, so most of my work goes into the gym.”
Making progress with getting stronger should be easier for Poitras with the Bruins with all of the staff available to help in the organization that are specialized in nutrition and training.
“It’s definitely easier being here,” he said. “You come in the gym and there’s a workout there for you, so you know what the expectation is… There's lots of help. So there's no excuse to not be working out and doing that stuff.”
Poitras says that progressively getting stronger will happen as the season goes on.
“It's mostly trying to get my body fat up a bit,” he said. “It's not really too much bulking because I don't want to be playing at a weight where I feel slower on the ice.
“I’m not trying to put on a set amount of weight, but I think just over time, it's not going to happen overnight, just over time, putting a bit more weight on, a bit more muscle,” he said.
Prepping for NHL competition
Though Poitras has played against NHL talent in the preseason, Wednesday night will be the first time he does it in a game that counts.
Poitras explained what is most important for him to focus on as he acclimates to the NHL:
“I think, again, it's just building confidence, and playing against these guys every day, you're going to get better because they're the best players in the world. So I think for me, it's just getting comfortable out there.”
Poitras’s journey to the NHL wasn't easy
Poitras's quick rise into the Bruins’ lineup is even more impressive when you consider he lost an entire season of playing hockey during COVID. Because of the strictly enforced quarantine rules in Canada, he missed what would have been his first season in the OHL for the 2020-21 season.
“You couldn't really prepare for something like that. I mean, I was stuck at home for most of 2020, there wasn't even ice really,” he said. “I couldn't get to the gym because everything was shut down in Ontario, so I was working out in my basement trying to do as much as possible. I didn't really know too much about what I was doing, so that was the tough part about it. So when I showed up for my first year of juniors, I hadn't really skated that much, I hadn’t really had set workouts at a gym where I'm working with a trainer. I was on my own and I was fortunate enough to get drafted.”
He went on to play two seasons with Guelph, finishing out last year with the second-most assists (79) and the fifth-most points (95) in the OHL.
Where Poitras slots in
Poitras is one of two young Bruins centers making their NHL debuts Wednesday. Johnny Beecher, who was drafted by Boston in the first round of the 2019 draft, made the Bruins’ final roster cut on Monday and is expected to slot in on the fourth line with Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko.
Poitras is expected to start the year on the third line with Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie, whom the Bruins added as a free agent from Seattle.
So, if you’re looking to pay attention to what could be one of the Bruins’ centers of the future Wednesday night, look for No. 51 in black and gold, Matt Poitras.