BOSTON — Matt Poitras is staying in Boston.
After an excellent preseason and a strong start to the season, the Bruins elected to keep the 19-year-old in the NHL.
“He’s sticking around,” Bruins Coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think we’re comfortable with him. There are no guarantees here the rest of the year, but we feel the way he’s progressed that for the time being he’s going to be a Bruin and he’s helping us win hockey games.
“That’s the most important thing. He’s still 19 so we’re going to be cautious.”
Because he’s too young to be sent to Providence in the AHL, the Bruins had nine games to decide whether to keep him on the NHL roster and start his rookie contract or send him back to the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey Hockey League.
Montgomery said Poitras’ grit was a deciding factor.
“I think that’s the No. 1 reason why he’s going to play a 10th game,” Montgomery said. “We see the hockey IQ, we see the skill, we see the vision. If you don’t compete and have natural second and third effort you don’t stay in this league. That’s been the best quality for why he’s earned this.”
In the final night of his nine-game audition, Poitras played 18:42. He was a minus-1 in 21 shifts on Monday. Poitras spent most of the second period on a line with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha as his wings. Poitras had two takeaways, blocked three shots and was 2-6 on faceoffs.
In his nine games, Poitras was among the NHL’s leaders in rookie scoring with three goals and two assists for five points. Montgomery, who has liberally shaken up his line combination throughout the season’s first month, has played Poitras on each of the Bruins’ top three lines.
“He’s played faster. He’s continued to get better at both ends of the ice. Every time we start to think this might be too much, he just always finds a way to (show) he belongs. He just belongs.”
Montgomery said Saturday that nothing had been determined, but he liked Poitras’ future even if the present was undetermined.
“He’s playing great,” said Montgomery who explained the final decision on Poitras would come from higher on the Bruins’ organizational ladder. “It’s not my decision. We’ve got to confer on it. I haven’t seen the stamp yet.
“I really like the way he responds every time he gets tested. There was a shift where his line was out there a long time. He was bent over. You could tell he was exhausted. Then somehow he finds the juice to create the turnover and get the puck out of the zone. We see the skill and we see the smarts, but his will is very underrated. We’ve got a hockey player on our hands here.”
Brad Marchand raved about Poitras after Monday’s game.
“He’s definitely made the best case possible for himself. He’s a heckuva player. He’s going to have a very long career. He does all the right things on and off the ice to be a good pro,” Marchand said. “It’s very impressive to see at his age. And he’s a great kid. He’s a lot of fun to have around. He’s always happy. How could you not be at 19 playing in the NHL? He’s so much fun to watch with how poised he is with the puck. The confidence he has at his age and the way he can see the game already, his future’s very bright. We’re very lucky to have him in the organization.”
Poitras’ play was likely enough to secure him a spot, but the Bruins had limited options at forward behind him as the 19-year-old offered a higher offensive ceiling than anyone who could step in from Providence. That became more apparent when Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko went down with injuries.
CHARLIE MCAVOY was suspended four games by the NHL for an illegal check to the head of Florida’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced the ban, saying after a disciplinary hearing that McAvoy made Ekman-Larsson’s head the principle point of content on a hit in which head contact was avoidable.
McAvoy hit Ekman-Larsson in the head with his left shoulder midway through the third period of the teams’ game Monday night. McAvoy was ejected with a match penalty, and Ekman-Larsson did not return after leaving the ice.
The Panthers also took issue with a hit that McAvoy delivered on Carter Verhaeghe in the first period. Asked after the game what his view of the hit to Ekman-Larsson was, Florida Coach Paul Maurice said, “I thought it was exactly like the hit on Verhaeghe in the first.”
McAvoy scored the tying goal about two minutes before the hit on Ekman-Larsson.
It’s McAvoy’s second NHL suspension for a head shot and the first since getting one game for an illegal check on Columbus Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson in the second round of the 2019 playoffs. He has also been fined once before in his six-plus year professional career.
McAvoy will forfeit $197,917 in salary and, barring appeal, won’t be eligible to play again until Boston’s game Nov. 11 at the Montreal Canadiens.
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