Jakub Lauko got the 'green light' to play his game to the fullest this week after coming back from injury in November.
Jakub Lauko pumped his arms in the air and sent the TD Garden crowd into a frenzy after taking down Minnesota Wild forward Connor Dewar in a first-period fight Tuesday night.
For the first time since returning from injury on Nov. 11, Lauko had his fiery edge back, and the Boston Bruins were better for it despite the eventual 4-3 overtime loss.
“Kind of just let it out. It’s been boiling in me for two months, so just wanted to let it out,” Lauko said.
The 23-year-old winger took a skate to the face on Oct. 24 against the Chicago Blackhawks and was sidelined with facial fractures for nearly three weeks. While Lauko was able to slot back into the lineup wearing a cage, and soon just a shield, Tuesday’s performance was a turning point.
“This was the first game that I could play the way I wanted to,” Lauko said. “It was the first week I got the green light to fight, so I went into this game like the first time I could actually do my thing and play my game.”
Prior to Tuesday’s matchup against the Wild, Lauko had been scratched for two of the last four games. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery had said he wanted to see more sustained energy from Lauko throughout 60 minutes, and it was sustained energy he brought. Seven minutes after the bout, Lauko attempted – and nearly completed – a lacrosse goal around Marc-Andre Fleury’s net.
“I do think it was [Lauko’s] best game, just because of his intensity on pucks, he was physical – at least three big hits that I remember,” Montgomery said.
It wasn’t just Lauko that had juice, though – it was his entire fourth line with Johnny Beecher and Oskar Steen. The Bruins opened the season with consistent, meaningful contributions from its fourth line, but the grinding, hard-nosed spirit had fallen off the past few weeks.
“We had a meeting with ‘Monty’ this morning. He said he thought we’ve been playing okay, but not as good as we can be. We just wanted to come out and play fast and hard,” Beecher said.
Beecher put together one of his better showings of the last month through 10:10 of total ice time. The 6-foot-3 center leaned into his physicality and worked hard along the boards – and he got rewarded for it.
David Pastrnak scored his first of two goals at 11:29 of the opening frame to tie things 1-1 off a strong play on the rush from Beecher. Beecher held onto the puck and bodied his way past Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian before dropping it to Pastrnak on the right side who ripped it into the net.
“That whole line – I thought Beecher had a couple of huge hits, made a great play using his athletic ability and skating to set up ‘Pasta’ on the first goal,” Montgomery said. “They had a big impact for us.”
On a team with goal-scorers like Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle, the fourth line isn’t needed for nightly offensive production. But, it does need to be hard to play against and generate opportunities nonetheless.
Lauko, Beecher and Steen got back to that on Tuesday, and the Bruins will need more of it moving forward as they look to snap a two-game losing streak Friday against the Winnipeg Jets.
“A lot of D-zone starts, it’s just a matter of getting the puck out, getting in the O-zone, making a play and then setting up the next one,” Beecher said. “I thought we did a good job tonight of kind of getting some momentum back for the team and hopefully we can carry that forward.”