At first blush, the scratching of Johnny Beecher for final Saturday’s sport in Toronto might have appeared a bit rash to some.
The rookie centerman had scored three objectives in his earlier six video games, not unhealthy for a fourth line pivot. His faceoff win share is presently at 56.2%, spectacular for a rookie. The emergence of Beecher and fellow rookie Matt Poitras has been key for the Bruins after the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
But in essential areas, particularly for the function he’s requested to play, Beecher had been slipping. He knew, and so did coach Jim Montgomery. So the previous Michigan Wolverine was given a fast reset within the type of a press field view in Toronto and it appeared to do the trick.
“I had a meeting with Monty,” mentioned Beecher on Tuesday. “He just kind of called me in and asked me how I thought I’d been playing. And I just said there really hasn’t been anything too fantastic going on, not playing the game fast enough. And he just said that I needed to be harder to play against, more detailed, more physical, just playing a more well-rounded game. I wasn’t too shocked at the end of the day. I hadn’t been playing up to the standards they have for me and the standards I have for myself. Obviously, I want to be better and these guys deserve my best. At the end of the day, they just wanted me to watch a game, see it from above, see what it takes to be a hard player to play against, watching (Charlie) Coyle, (Danton) Heinen, (Brad Marchand), guys that very really lose puck battles. They’re always in the right spots. And just had to take it as a learning curve and move forward.”
Beecher mentioned he zeroed in on heart Coyle.
“He always just seems to be in the right spots and working as hard as he can. It’s very rare that he gets out-muscled off of a puck. That’s something that I’m really trying to implement in my game and something I was paying a lot of attention,” mentioned Beecher.
Montgomery appreciated Beecher’s response within the B’s 3-1 win over Columbus on Sunday, in addition to the work of the complete fourth line with wings Jakub Lauko and Morgan Geekie.
“I thought he did a good job,” mentioned Montgomery. “I thought his line brought energy. They spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, which is always a good sign when your bottom two lines can spend O-zone time and extend and wear out the other team’s top players.”
The solely unfavourable from Beecher’s sport was a 3rd interval offensive zone penalty shortly after the B’s had taken a 3-1 lead when he tried to salvage a missed examine and was referred to as for a leg journey. But the B’s survived that penalty, and Beecher (4 of six on attracts) was capable of come again to assist the workforce shut the door.
“That’s something at that point in the game they were looking to even the calls and I just got to be smarter. It’s just one of those things where you have to take ownership of it and realize you messed up and try and learn from it,” mentioned Beecher.
“I’ve just got to take a better angle. We knew they would try and give them an opportunity with a couple minutes left and unfortunately it fell on me. But I was happy with how I was able to respond and come out later in the game, win a big faceoff and get a block.”
Sometimes, all it takes for a younger participant is a unique view of issues.
Source: www.bostonherald.com