An ugly late turnover in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks kept the Bruins in the defensive zone and led to a Charlie McAvoy penalty. On the ensuing power play, Trevor Zegras gave the Ducks the 4-3 lead with 22 seconds left.
Without Smith’s turnover, we could be talking about a perfect 5-0 start to the road trip, one that ends in Columbus on Saturday.
Mistakes will happen, some more costly than others. But how you respond says more about you as a player than the mistake.
On Thursday Smith responded and responded in a big way with his first hat trick of the season, helping lead the Bruins past the Golden Knights 5-2.
“Any time you can pop three, it’s great,… said Smith. “Obviously road wins are huge, too.…
While the Bruins have been getting production on their top two lines during the road trip, Thursday was the Bruins’ third line’s time to shine. Centered by Charlie Coyle, the line of Trent Frederic, Coyle and Smith was arguably the Bruins best, responding well from some tough moments in Anaheim.
“We had a good meeting with them this morning about something they can build on a little more, an attack mentality. It happened to work tonight and good for them,… head coach Bruce Cassidy said Thursday.
“They made a mistake the other night, but they’ve been a really good starting line for us. They’ve done a real good job of setting the tone for us. We don’t want to lose that. We don’t want to punish them for one decision. And they came through for us.…
When Coyle can do what he does best down the middle, it’s often benefited the Bruins. Lately, Coyle has been able to work his magic and it’s providing results from the entire third line.
Frederic assisted on all three of Smith’s goals Thursday and Coyle picked up one of his own. The line, and the makeup of it is similar to the third line trio of Danton Heinen, Coyle and Marcus Johansson, a line that found much success in 2019 and throughout the playoffs.
“It takes me back to the playoffs — the Coyle and [Johansson] trade years ago where we had three lines going offensively and our fourth line was built to kill penalties and give us energy,… Cassidy said. "We have that and now, if that line could generate, we become dangerous like that offensively.…
We’ve seen both Coyle and Smith play well at times throughout their respective tenures in Boston, but for Frederic, his play of late has been something we haven’t seen. Maybe, for he and the Bruins, they’ve finally found the right fit.
“He’ll bring the physicality, we know that. But he’s learning to possess pucks better with that group, so they’re spending time in the o-zone,… Cassidy said.
“Freddy has a really good shot, and I don’t think that people notice that. His release is excellent and even though he got three assists, he shot off the rush a couple times, which was great.…
Between the emergence of DeBrusk on the top line and the now consistent scoring from Pastrnak on the second line, the Bruins are looking for more production from their bottom-six.
The newly formed third line is off to a good start.