BOSTON — Trent Frederic had his back to Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy as he set up in front of the net on a Bruins first-period power play.
With his big frame, Frederic was well set up to tip a shot and screen the goalie at the same time. But with the Tampa defense giving Frederic a lot of room to work with, Kevin Shattenkirk opted to pass it to him. Frederic, a lefty shot, caught the puck on his forehand a few feet from the net in the right-wing faceoff circle.
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Since time to operate that close to the goal is rare, many forwards, including Frederic himself in prior years, would have either tried a quick backhand or passed to someone else. But Frederic’s improvement as an offensive player has come at least partially from having an improved sense of how much space and how much time he has to work with.
So he pivoted his body counterclockwise, keeping the puck in the curve of his blade, and then flipped the puck by Vasilevskiy.
“Shatty made a great play and fortunately I got it over,” Frederic said.
While Vasilevskiy hasn’t quote been at his elite form this year, it was still a nifty goal against one of the best goalies in the world.
It was the first to two goals for Frederic in Saturday’s 7-3 win.
“I think his confidence has increased his poise with the puck, and he’s got tremendous hands,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “In practice he’s scores more than anyone except for (David Pastrnak). I think it’s coming. He’s just got to stay really focused on his habits and details. When he’s doing those things I expect him to keep scoring like he is.
“The reasons I think he can continue scoring is he’s putting himself in situations to score,” Montgomery added. “He’s not deferring anymore.”
With 12 goals and 9 assists in 38 games, Frederic is well on pace to break his personal bests in goals (17), assists (14) and points (31) that he set last year. He expressed his appreciation for Montgomery’s belief in him which has fed his belief in himself.”
“It’s Monty putting confidence in me and it’s grown over time,” Frederic said. “I don’t think it’s something that I haven’t had, it’s just having that confidence to look up. … It’s been going in which is nice. Sometimes when it’s not going in, you’re shooting it and you never think it’s going in. Now it’s going in for you and everything you shoot feel like (it could go in).”
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