Things are lining up for Brazeau, Bruins
The shortest distance between two points for Justin Brazeau — the straight line he drew from right wing to the net Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia — paid off for the emerging Bruins right winger.
Brazeau’s finishing touch, an elongated backhand sweep at Samuel Ersson’s doorstep, brought him his fourth goal in the last three games during the 3-2 loss. It was an impressive bit of touch for the 6-foot-5inch, 220-pound Brazeau, the kind of polish that could earn him a promotion from the fourth-line duty he’s been logging since his recent call-up from AHL Providence.
“We’re not generating much, so you try to tease chemistry out of lines,” said coach Jim Montgomery, who again tossed his 12 forwards into the Line-oMatic blender starting in the second period at Wells Fargo Center. “Two of the lines scored, so . . . but two of the lines got scored against.”
Montgomery began to scramble his trios around the 14:30 mark of the second, even before the Flyers, also struggling to find an offensive foothold, moved to the 1-0 lead on the first of Travis Konecny’s two goals. Montgomery’s first move was to put the ever-energized
Morgan Geekie into Danton Heinen’s left wing spot on the Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak line.
Later, having just jumped into the action off the bench, Heinen finished off a feed from Geekie that pulled the Bruins briefly into a 2-2 tie.
“That,” said Heinen, now with 14 goals, “was all Geeks.” Geekie, who began the day centering Jakub Lauko and Trent Frederic, would be an obvious candidate to start in the top six when the Bruins open their Florida doubleheader Tuesday in Sunrise, followed by a stop the next night in Tampa.
Brazeau, who has added to his ice time of late as a member of the No. 2 power-play unit, would be another prime candidate for career advancement up top. Contrary to his pre-NHL publicity, his skating speed has not been an issue. He keeps up fine with the pace of play, and as shown yet again with his finish in Philly, he has hands not normally part of a big man’s tool kit.
Brazeau popped in a pair of power-play strikes in last Tuesday’s 6-2 thumping of the Senators and added one at even strength in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers before the one against the Flyers.
On a club searching for offensive mojo with 10 games to go in the regular season, it looks inevitable that Brazeau is in for some added face time, possibly on the first power play, where captain Brad Marchand has not put one in the net since Jan. 13 (Game No. 42) against the Blues.
Brazeau, 26, went undrafted in junior, where he ultimately led OHL North Bay in scoring his final two seasons, averaging 50 goals and 94 points. Raised in New Liskeard, Ontario, northeast of Sudbury, he wasn’t the typical Canadian kid with that oneday-I’ll-be-inthe-NHL dream. He was all but an afterthought selection in the OHL draft, and even with the 100 goals he scored across the final two years of junior, the best offer he secured to turn pro was a two-year AHL deal with the Maple Leafs.
Two years later, with no clear path to Toronto, Brazeau signed with Providence, where he remained for two-plus seasons before finally this February signing his two-way deal with Boston — his first NHL deal coming some nine years after his junior draft.
Now he’s working for the NHL minimum ($775,000). His only guarantee: He won’t make less than $190,000 if he’s back in the minors next season. His trip thus far has been anything but the shortest distance between two points, but it’s beginning to look like he’s found his way.
...
Geekie, whose sauce led to Heinen’s goal for the equalizer in the third, finished with a game-high eight hits, or 20 percent of the 39 smacks the Bruins dealt.
More Geekie needed, front to back.
Pat Maroon’s debut (date TBD) should help the overall contact cause. It also has been obvious that Charlie McAvoy has been holding back on hits in the wake of his four-game suspension for his nasty late pop on Florida’s Oliver Ekman Larsson on Oct. 30.
Come playoff time, McAvoy should feel free to engage in some of the well-timed jarring hits that he has been known to deliver. The second pairing, Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo, typically won’t display that pop.
Parker Wotherspoon, in and out of the No. 3 pairing, provides a touch of sandpaper, but the deadline acquisition of Andrew Peeke could make it difficult for Wotherspoon to make his way into the playoff lineup.
...
Montgomery said prior to Saturday’s matinee that he intends to roll with his Linus Ullmark-Jeremy Swayman goalie rotation over the final 10 regular-season games.
Given that Ullmark played Saturday, that would point to Swayman for Tuesday, but with back-to-backs, it’s possible Montgomery goes again with Ullmark and then starts Swayman the next night.
The Bruins have won both matchups with the Panthers this season, each time with Ullmark in net. He turned back 35 of 37 in a 3-2 overtime win at the Garden on Oct. 30 and 27 of 28 in a 3-1 win at Florida on Nov. 22.
The Lightning prevailed in extra innings in their two victories (sandwiched around a Bruins’ 7-3 win). In a 5-4 OT win at Tampa on Nov. 20, Swayman turned back 42 of 47 shots after the Bruins lost leads of 3-2 and 4-3 in the third period. Ullmark was tagged with the 3-2 shootout loss at the Garden on Feb. 13, a night when he stopped 23 of 25.
...
The back-to-back regulation losses, to the Rangers and Flyers, were the first for the Bruins since dips to Winnipeg (5-1) on Dec. 22 and Minnesota (3-2) on Dec. 23, a rough patch in which they went 5-6-3 leading to the Christmas break.
The Bruins only once this season lost three in a row in regulation, a late-November funk that included L’s to the Red Wings, Rangers, and Blue Jackets.
...
Riley Duran, a right-shot forward with some size (6-2, 180) who grew up in Woburn, will report this week to Providence after eschewing his senior year at Providence College to turn pro with the Bruins.
Duran, who played two seasons at Lawrence Academy prior to joining the Friars, signed a two-year entry-level deal with Boston and will join the WannaBs immediately under an amateur tryout agreement. The signing was reported by the Friars and in a media release by the Bruins.
The 182nd player chosen in the 2020 draft, the 22-yearold collected 55 points in his 102 games in his three seasons in Hockey East.
The two-way deal carries a cap hit of $867,500 at the NHL level and guarantees him a minimum of $345,000 for the two years, according to capfriendly.com.