The Boston Bruins' forward scored a short-handed goal in Thursday's 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Boston Bruins' forward scored a short-handed goal in Thursday's 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Danton Heinen picked up the puck at the defensive blue line, forced his way past two Vancouver Canucks and cut to the net, snapping the rubber top-corner for a 2-0 Boston Bruins lead in Thursday’s eventual 4-0 win.
“I think I had a little step on him, so try to just get inside a little bit and get a little bit of space,” Heinen said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDajUA_40TQ[/embed]
Heinen’s tally was the B’s second short-handed goal of the first period, and provided a much-needed boost in the bounce-back game after Boston fell to the Calgary Flames, 4-1, on Tuesday.
What’s more, the Langley, British Columbia native scored his 10th of the season against his childhood team.
“I usually have buddies and stuff back home watching, so it’s always fun playing against them and it’s nice to get the win,” Heinen said Thursday.
While he’s now a proud-wearer of the Spoked-B, Heinen was part of the Canucks faithful growing up. In the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, the then 15-year-old watched the Bruins take down Vancouver in the seven-game series.
“I was always watching the Sedins,” Heinen said. “I got lucky growing up and watching them – how smart they were and how good they were. Those were the guys I grew up watching.”
Fast forward 13 years and Heinen has sneakily become a key cog in the Bruins’ winning machine in the 2023-24 season – for a bargain deal, too.
Heinen has most recently been skating on the fourth line with Jesper Boqvist and Oskar Steen, but has also been a utility man for Bruins coach Jim Montgomery who can rely on the 28-year-old to be effective up and down the lineup.
To carve out a role for himself on this year’s Bruins team, Heinen has had to add an edge to his game. He takes pride in being hard to play against every shift.
“You try to get a little stronger, you try to be harder on pucks, and that’s something that I’ve kind of had to focus on,” Heinen said. “The more battles you win, the more you have the puck.”
Jim Montgomery rolled four lines against the league-leading Canucks on Thursday, and Heinen logged some important minutes both on the penalty kill and 5-on-5 through 14:06 of total ice time.
Now back in the win column, Heinen and the rest of the Boston squad will look to build some second-half momentum off a game in which they looked a lot more like themselves. Next up, it’s a Saturday matinee with the Washington Capitals at TD Garden.
“It felt less thinking, more going,” Heinen said. “More on your toes kind of thing. Definitely felt a lot better.”
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