The winger will add depth to the Bruins' bottom six and leadership in the locker room.
BRIGHTON, Mass. – Milan Lucic will have a new purpose for the Boston Bruins this season.
In his second stint with the team that he entered the NHL with in 2007, Lucic, now 35 years old, is no longer a top six power forward, but he’s filling a different need lower down in the lineup.
Lucic is one of two current Bruins, alongside Brad Marchand, that knows what it feels like to bring a Stanley Cup to Boston. In this next phase of his B’s story, Lucic is along for the ride and willing to pitch in wherever necessary to taste that glory again.
“Most of all, just bring what I bring on a day-to-day basis, and that’s having fun being in the NHL but also when it’s go time, it’s go time,” Lucic told reporters Friday after captains’ practice at Warrior Ice Arena.
“It’s a different time in my life but I definitely think I can still bring a lot to this team and this organization.”
By now, everyone knows the story. There’s ambiguity, and opportunity, within the Bruins lineup heading into training camp with the offseason losses they endured. Lucic will be competing for a bottom six spot, most likely on the fourth line.
His positioning isn’t a given, though, as Lucic could also be slotted as an extra forward at times, but the veteran isn’t afraid of a little internal competition. He welcomes it.
“I think it’s really great, it’s what you want in a team, it’s what you want in an organization. I think when you have young guys pushing the older guys, it pushes us older guys to be better,” Lucic said.
“To have that competition is what makes a good team even better.”
Lucic, beyond being a fan favorite, has a physical advantage that not many gunning for a nightly roster spot can rival. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound winger led the Calgary Flames’ forwards with 168 hits last season.
In inevitable games where the Bruins won’t be able to find a spark, a blasting Lucic takedown could do just the trick.
"I think when he steps back on the ice, I think everybody in the building will feel a little bit of a buzz," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney told NHL.com in July following Lucic’s one-year signing.
“He feels he's got a lot of juice left and we feel he can provide a real jolt of both enthusiasm, bite to our lineup. ... It's a thing we missed.”
Sappy but true, Lucic is also there to protect the no-quit style of play that guys like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci helped build. That’s the Boston team Lucic last remembers, and that’s the one he’ll work to preserve.
“For me, that’s probably one of the biggest things coming is to keep that culture and that identity going in this locker room,” Lucic said.
“I think that’s a big part of my job this year coming in. You’ve got to have fun with it and have to look forward to it even though it’s a big responsibility.”
Carrying a greater leadership role into his 17th season in the league, Lucic has an indispensable quality that all teams look for: He truly wants to be there.
While Lucic adds undeniable depth to a robust bottom six pool and will likely chip a few pucks into the back of the net in his first year back on Causeway Street, it’s his love and pride for the spoked-B that makes all the difference.
“I said it all summer long, it just feels right,” Lucic said. “It just feels like I’m home again, that’s probably the best way to put it.”
