Poitras expected to come back stronger
The decision for rookie Matt Poitras to go under the knife to repair his injured right shoulder was not taken lightly by any of the parties involved, said coach Jim Montgomery. In the end, the choice for him to have the surgery now was all about putting Poitras in a position to succeed down the road.
“There was a lot of discussion about what was best for Matt Poitras,” said Montgomery after the Bruins’ morning skate on Thursday. “I think in the end, (GM Don Sweeney) and I had talked with Matty and then Donny and Matty talked with his family and the people that advised him and everyone was on the same page that this was what was best for him moving forward, because he’s 19. He’s going to have a full summer to get prepared for next year. If we waited, then the summer gets compromised.”
One of the reasons Poitras made the team in the first was his ability to win battles along the boards and his willingness to go into the hard areas of ice, despite being a highly skilled centerman. Still, his age didn’t lie. It’s a rough sport and when you’re 19, chances are you’re going to be at a physical disadvantage going up against a 27-year- old defenseman.
“I’m looking at what’s going to help him the most looking forward,” said Montgomery. “He knows he can play in the league, he knows he can have success in the league, he knows his brains, his skill level and all that and he knows the areas that he needs to grow in to get that man strength and also get the stamina required to be a player that we don’t have to do the maintenance with so that he can play full time next year. Because he’s a big piece of what we’re doing moving forward.”
In Montgomery’s mind, the timetable was the key.
“It would affect his ability to get stronger if we waited,” said Montgomery. “If we waited till the end of the playoffs, it’s a five-month (recovery) and then he’s coming back with no training, no strength development and power development until the middle of November, and then he’s playing catch up. We didn’t think that was very fair to him or the best thing for the Bruins moving forward.”
Montgomery said Poitras will go through his recovery and rehab in Boston. In fact, he said the player was already at the Garden on Thursday morning to touch base after undergoing surgery on Wednesday.
“He’s going to do his rehab here and we’re going to be hands- on with him. He’s going to be starting his recovery right away,” said Montgomery.
Shattenkirk scratched
Parker Wotherspoon drew back in and Kevin Shattenkirk was tabbed to be the healthy scratch against the Canucks on the back end.
Wotherspoon, a product of British Columbia, was a diehard Canucks fan as a kid. His father, Troy, is a longtime season-ticket holder and they were in their regular Rogers Arena seats for Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals when the B’s bested his favorite team.
“That was tough,” said Wotherspoon. “It was weird. I remember when Boston scored the first goal (with his current teammate Brad Marchand setting up Patrice Bergeron), just the air went out of the building and we knew it was over at the time. Obviously it was tough one as a kid.”
As the B’s were raising the Cup, bedlam was just starting to break outside the arena with angry fans taking their frustrations out on the city itself.
“Yeah, we took the back roads out of there and made sure to avoid the riots. It was crazy,” said Wotherspoon.
Now, with one son in the NHL and another, Tyler, playing in Utica of the AHL, Troy Wotherspoon doesn’t live and die with the hometown team so much.
“I don’t think he’s thrown on the Canucks jersey in a while. My brother’s in Utica, too, so he just kind of follows us. I don’t think he’s a huge fan of them anymore,” said Wotherspoon.
Richard recalled
With the Poitras injury putting the number of Bruin forwards down to 12, the club recalled 27-year- old forward Anthony Richard. The 5-foot10, 185-pound Richard had 19-19-38 totals in 41 games in Providence.