Get Ready for the Ultimate Saturday Night Homecoming with Poitras

Montgomery said he has not yet seen the moment get too big for the young centerman. “To be honest, I don’t think he was ever distracted by the bright lights,” said Montgomery. “I think it’s a man’s league, it’s the best league in the world, and here he is doing a good job for us, helping win hockey games. I think there’s going to be moments where it’s hard, and what we’re seeing is a player that’s fought through the hard and is getting better.”

As Poitras heads into Saturday night, he is entering the game with points in back-to-back contests following a slower stretch where he only managed two points over nine games. The center scored his fifth goal of the season on Monday in Columbus. He then provided a clever assist on Danton Heinen’s opening goal in the B’s 3-0 win over the Sharks on Thursday. Playing alongside Heinen and Brad Marchand seemed to give Poitras an added boost.

Expressing his feelings about the recent games, Poitras stated, “I felt pretty good. Just hold on to pucks and try to make plays, which is my game. So, I’m just going to keep building that confidence and keep trying to do those same things.”

This season in the National Hockey League has been a learning experience for Poitras as he navigates through a schedule packed with numerous games in a short amount of time. “It’s definitely different, it takes a toll on your body,” said Poitras. “For me, I try to take care of my body as much as possible, try to get to bed early so I can endure this tough spot in the schedule. We’ve played a lot of games over the last week, two weeks. I’m kind of a young guy, so I still feel pretty good. I can kind of get through these back-to-backs and all that.”

While Poitras played well between Marchand and Heinen against the Sharks, Montgomery mentioned that due to Toronto’s Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner line, he may adjust his forward lines based on Saturday’s matchup. As a result, Poitras practiced between James van Riemsdyk and Trent Frederic on Friday.

“It’s just the matchup. It’s also that I want to see what it looks like,” said Montgomery. “We were doing a couple of drills where there was line rushes, so I want to see the chemistry. I haven’t tried Matt Poitras and James van Riemsdyk, so I wanted to see what that would look like, and I haven’t seen Heinen go with Coyle and Marchy yet, so we just want to see what it looks like off the rush, because it was rush drills.”

Boston’s coach also had Poitras at the net front on the B’s second power-play unit. “It’s just trying a different look,” said Montgomery. “He’s a real crafty player, so we think him being at the net front – and it’s not him just being [there], he’ll move. Charlie [Coyle] will be at the net front sometimes, it’s just something that we want to work on, because we haven’t worked on it before.”