BOSTON — It would have been a good play at any point in the game, but the fact that Matt Poitras notched a pretty assist in his second shift after the Bruins summoned him back to the NHL set an important tone.
The version of Matt Poitras on the ice Tuesday looked much more like the one who captured the imagination of Boston fans when he made the team early last year than the one who struggled through his first 14 games of this one.
On his second shift of the game, Charlie Coyle blocked a shot, recovered the puck in the Bruins’ end and fed Poitras breaking out of the zone. Showing a burst of speed, Poitras accelerated through the neutral zone creating a two-on-one with Trent Frederic.
If Poitras felt pressure being back in Boston, it didn’t show in that moment. As he closed in on the goal, Poitras waited for defenseman Nick Perbix to commit. The Tampa defenseman tried to slide, a move designed to block either a shot or a pass. Poitras threaded the pass underneath him. Frederic collected it and tapped it by Andrei Vasilevskiy, 4:24 into the first, setting the tone for the game.
“Potsy kind of did it all,” Frederic said. “It was a great play by Potsy.”
As the crowd roared, Poitras felt a weight lift.
“I was a bit nervous before the game. Making that play and seeing it go in, eases the tension a little bit,” he said. “It’s great to see a puck go in the net.”
In the preseason, Poitras said he wanted to play so well that the Bruins couldn’t send him down. But with just a goal and three assists in 14 games, he didn’t achieve that. Still, he was surprised and initially disappointed at his Rhode Island assignment.
After a slow start to his AHL stint in November, Poitras got hot in December and had eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in 23 games before being summoned back to Boston.
After the Bruins tinkered with playing him at wing earlier in the year, Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said he plans to keep him at center and put him between Frederic and Coyle.
“I like the energy he brought to the game tonight,” Sacco said. “Right off the hop there. He gets separation from his guy. He uses his speed and his creativity. To be able to hold onto the puck while the D is sliding and get it over to Freddy, it was a really good play. You could tell right away that it energized our group.”
The early play was the highlight, but it was a solid overall effort for Poitras, who looked capable of contributing to a team that could use the help.
Poitras is not a complete player. At 20-years-old, there’s physical maturation and hockey development still to come. But on a Bruins team that has been hurt by not having enough high-end offensive players, Poitras has promise.
His vision and his offensive creativity can give the Bruins an added element that they don’t have enough of, if he can stand the physical rigors of playing against bigger players.
“It definitely gives me some confidence,” he said. “Now I need to try to do this day in and day out and try to string some consistency together. The elite players bring it every night. I want to be a regular in this league. I need to be able to go every single night.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
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