The Boston Bruins have defied all predictions since the beginning of this season.
After an exceptional 2022-2023 regular season, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired from the Massachusetts club. Despite these two major defeats, the Oursons are one of three teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) that have not suffered a setback so far this year.
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On Sunday, the Bruins defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 for their fifth straight victory. The star of this game was young Matthew Poitras, who scored his first two career goals.
“It’s pretty surreal,” said the 19-year-old center, whose comments were reported by the NHL website.
“Just seeing the puck in the net was very exciting. I don’t really know what I did. I had a bit of a memory lapse, but I was excited and happy.”
Poitras scored two goals in the third period. He scored the equalizer and the winning goal. The Bruins’ second-round pick (54th overall) in the 2022 draft is highly regarded around the organization.
“If you want to perform in this league, you have to be willing to go where it hurts. That’s what I like about him,” head coach Jim Montgomery said of Poitras. He is willing to do anything and he manages to win his one-on-one battles in the corners and get into difficult places.”
Without Lucic
Minutes before the start of the game against the Ducks, the Bruins were forced to remove forward Milan Lucic from their lineup.
The 35-year-old veteran took part in the warm-up training, but returned to the locker room after just one lap on the ice. Patrick Brown took his seat in the fourth row.
Before the game, Montgomery indicated that some of his skaters were suffering from minor injuries. It appears that Lucic was unable to put any weight on either of his legs.
The 2023-2024 season will see Lucic return to Boston after wearing the team’s colors from 2007 to 2015. So far, he has collected two assists in four games.