Morgan Geekie scored the Bruins’ only goal in Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime loss against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.
Morgan Geekie rose to the occasion for the Boston Bruins.
Despite Wednesday night’s 2-1 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils, Geekie handled his heightened top-six responsibilities with passion and poise. The 25-year-old forward scored the B’s only goal of the game off an extra-effort play in the first period, and continued to slickly set up his teammates throughout the 60-plus minutes.
“I love the way we competed, I love the way the guys who got the extra minutes competed, I liked how the guys inserted into the lineup competed,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said to reporters postgame.
Geekie was filling the Pavel-Zacha-sized hole between Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak for a majority of the night, but his tally came while skating with James van Riemsdyk and Danton Heinen.
Montgomery harped on Geekie’s tenacity on pucks and strength in 50/50 battles on Tuesday after practice, and that was on full display on the scoring play.
Geekie popped the puck out from the corner boards, fending off two Devils, before he worked himself to the front of the net and got inside positioning on New Jersey defenseman Colin Miller. Thanks to his sturdy net-front presence, Geekie collected the rebound of van Riemsdyk’s shot from the left circle and wrapped it around and past Devils goaltender Vitek Vanecek for the 1-0 lead at 16:51 and his third goal of the season.
“Won a few battles down low, won a few pucks. It was good, we had a few big bodies on that line so it was nice to stir around a little bit down underneath the line, and got up top, right back to the net, and just the right spot,” Geekie said to reporters postgame.
Out of Geekie’s total 17:48 of ice time, 11:33 of it was spent on the line with DeBrusk and Pastrnak, according to Natural Stat Trick. The trio led the Bruins in shots on goal with eight out of a team total 24 and Geekie was 60 percent from the faceoff dot.
Geekie showed close to no growing pains as he shifted over to center for the second consecutive game, and allowed his playmaking abilities to shine with a player of Pastrnak’s caliber on his wing.
“It’s special. When you get into the NHL you don’t really ever think about that, but it’s lots of fun. I’m not taking it for granted,” Geekie said.
“He wants me to play my game…Just go out there, compliment him and try to give him the puck. Obviously he’s a skilled player, made a lot of good plays tonight.”
Geekie’s well-rounded performance is an obvious positive to take from a game where Boston clearly missed Zacha and Charlie McAvoy – the two are day-to-day with upper-body injuries. Jeremy Swayman was sharp with 34 saves and the Bruins’ defense off the rush against a team as talented in transition as the Devils was solid, but the offensive punch was not there when they needed it.
“It was good to get out there. I thought we played a solid game tonight,” Geekie said. “Obviously didn’t come out on the right side of the outcome, but I thought we played a solid 60 and they’re a good team. Obviously they’re going to push back, so something to build off of and be ready for the Islanders.”