As Matt Poitras's nine-game extended tryout wound down in late October, it was becoming increasingly clear that the 19-year-old center had earned a longer stay in Boston and would not be getting returned to his junior team, the Guelph Storm.
The Bruins' decision to keep Poitras in the NHL set up a second crucial decision that Poitras would need to make: where he was going to live, and with whom. He had been living in a hotel in Watertown since the start of training camp in September, but it was now time to find a place of his own.
Well, a place that was sort of his own, at least. Poitras's mom did not want him living completely by himself. Doing so for the first time while also beginning an NHL career as the youngest player on the team could understandably be a bit stressful – for son and mother alike.
Reflecting on his decision on where to live this past week, Poitras begins to push back on his mom's concerns.
"I thought maybe…"
He quickly corrects himself and acknowledges mom was right.
"Actually no, I couldn't live by myself," Poitras admits with a laugh.
Poitras's older teammates already had settled living arrangements. Many of them have a wife and kids. Fortunately, there was one Bruin who was open to having a roommate: fellow rookie center Johnny Beecher.
Poitras and the 22-year-old Beecher had crossed paths at a couple rookie camps, but they really hadn't hung out or had many conversations prior to this year's training camp. They don't play together on the ice, either, logging a mere two minutes of ice time together all season.
Off the ice, however, the two have been nearly inseparable since they moved into a North End apartment together last month.
"I don't know if me and him have gone two hours at a time without seeing each other in the last month or two," Beecher said this past week.
The two have barely had time to settle into their new digs. Until this past week, the Bruins had spent much of the past month on the road. They haven't even had a chance to get down to Providence to retrieve some of the stuff that Beecher – a Providence Bruin last season – has in a storage unit there, like an air fryer that Poitras thinks might be the key to him being able to cook for himself.
"Gotta get the air fryer," Poitras said. "I think once we get the air fryer, then we can start cooking some stuff up because it's easy."
They've watched some movies, another blind spot for Poitras, who says he doesn't usually watch many. "Lone Survivor," starring Boston's own Mark Wahlberg, has been a favorite so far. They might start watching "The Sopranos" from the beginning soon.
They've done a little bit of exploring around the North End. Carmelina's was a recent stop that might be Beecher's new favorite. Poitras is looking for a go-to chicken parm spot. Finding one should be the easiest thing he does this season.
Finding their way as rookies in the NHL is a little more challenging than finding good chicken parm in the North End. Both were pleasant surprises making the Bruins out of camp, and both have been clear net positives for a team that needed help at the center position following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
Poitras has 12 points in 25 games and is fifth on the team in 5-on-5 scoring and expected goals-for percentage. He has settled in as the No. 3 center behind Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle. Beecher, the fourth-line center, is the team's best faceoff man, is second on the team in hits, is a key part of the NHL's best penalty kill, and has chipped in four goals of his own.
It hasn't been all smooth sailing, though. Beecher was a healthy scratch last Saturday in Toronto, the result of a dip in his play. Poitras has been benched in several third periods when the Bruins have been protecting leads, including in Saturday's win over Arizona. That's a product of coach Jim Montgomery not yet trusting Poitras's "game management," as he put it. Poitras was also a healthy scratch on Thursday against Buffalo, although that was part of a load management plan, not a punishment.
Montgomery is trying to walk a fine line between doing whatever it takes to win games and allowing his rookies to make and learn from mistakes. The Bruins are not a rebuilding team that can simply let young players "play through it." They are tied for the best record in the NHL and have Stanley Cup aspirations. They play a system that demands buttoned-up, 200-foot play from their centers, and Poitras and Beecher are not and will not be exempt from those demands just because they're rookies.
"The important thing for everybody … is putting players in situations to succeed and giving them the opportunity to fail," Montgomery said. "Because you're gonna fail in this league. It's just inevitable. Everybody does, because everybody makes mistakes in this work.
"…It's just part of the process when you have some young players playing in important minutes. The center position is really hard to play for us. It just is. It requires a lot more skating than if you play man-on-man [defense, compared to the Bruins' zone]. And we're seeing that, over time, with both of our young centers, that they're doing a terrific job, but there's going to be times where we need to pull back minutes because it's a very demanding position for us."
The Bruins are one of only two teams regularly playing two rookie centers this season. The other is the Columbus Blue Jackets with Adam Fantilli and Dmitri Voronkov. The Chicago Blackhawks have started to with Connor Bedard and the recently recalled Cole Guttman. The Anaheim Ducks sometimes do with Leo Carlsson and Bo Groulx, but Groulx plays more wing than center. All three of those teams are near the bottom of the standings, firmly entrenched in rebuilds.
The Bruins are in a very different situation. What they are trying to do is rare. If they were to achieve their ultimate goal of winning the Cup, and Poitras and Beecher were still anchoring lines come the spring, they would be the first team to win it all with two rookie centers regularly in the lineup since the 1981-82 Islanders did it with Brent Sutter and Billy Carroll.
Poitras and Beecher understand what's at stake, and they understand why Montgomery isn't going easy on them.
"It's part of the business," Beecher said. "We have a hell of a hockey team here, and it kind of just comes down to, if you make a couple mistakes, you might end up paying for it. But at the end of the day, it's just about the team winning and having the guys out there that can get the job done. So, I think we both fully understand what's at stake here. It's not easy to win a game in this league, and it means a lot whenever you can get two points. So, we're just going out there and doing everything we can to help the team win right now."
That doesn't mean it's easy to deal with those situations, though. Both want to play every game. No one wants to get benched in the third period. They are glad they're going through it all together, though.
"To have somebody that's going through the exact same thing as me right now, it helps a lot," Beecher said. "Just when we go home at the end of the day, we can relay messages to each other and kind of bounce ideas and just kind of how we're feeling. I mean, it's a hard league to play in and it's a grind, mentally and physically. So, having him has been huge for me, and I think he feels the same way."
He does.
"I think mostly it's just having a guy to talk to about those things," Poitras agreed. "It's tough going through maybe not playing or having a tough game or stuff like that, so I think it's always nice to just be able to talk to someone about it."
Of course, they can lean on their teammates as well. Both said they felt welcomed by the Bruins' veteran core even before they officially made the team.
"Everybody's just treated us so well. I've never really been treated like a rookie," Poitras said. "I think I've always, from the start, from the get-go, everybody has kind of accepted me and Beech into the group, and it's kind of made us feel comfortable around here. It makes coming to the rink really easy."
That's good, because, as Poitras and Beecher are learning, there's plenty about life as an NHL rookie that isn't easy, like getting to the right spots in the Bruins' zone defense on time. Or cooking dinner without an air fryer.
