Bruins’ belief in Justin Brazeau is paying off on hockey’s highest stage
"I always had the belief that I could be here and do this type of stuff."
SUNRISE, Fla. — All Justin Brazeau needed was a chance.
Such an opportunity presented itself as he gathered a puck near center ice at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday night. With only Sergei Bobrovsky in front of him, the 26-year-old forward switched on the afterburners.
Using his 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame to shield the puck from defenseman Aaron Ekblad, Brazeau out-muscled the blueliner to the outside as he glided into the crease. Bobrovsky’s slide to right was in vain, as Brazeau’s array of dekes ended with a puck sliding past the goal line — and a first career playoff goal added to his resume.
“He’s unbelievably skilled,” fellow rookie (and Game 1 goal scorer) Mason Lohrei said of Brazeau after Boston’s 5-1 win over Florida. “Such a great finisher in tight, which is kind of deceiving for a big guy. But he’s got that goalscorer’s touch and it’s pretty cool to see him go forehand, backhand there.”
Brazeau’s opportunistic strike off the rush was emblematic of his first NHL campaign — with the undrafted power forward and former junior-league standout finally granted a chance to prove he belongs at hockey’s highest level.
And so far, the Bruins are reaping the rewards from buying into the big body from New Liskeard, Ontario.
“I always had the belief that I could be here and do this type of stuff,” Brazeau said after lighting the lamp on Monday. “So I wouldn’t say I had no belief in it. But obviously it was a bit of a far-fetched coming into the year, just on an AHL deal. So I’m obviously extremely happy to be here.”
Brazeau’s road to Boston has been anything but linear. Despite recording a whopping 113 points over 68 games in his final season of junior hockey with the North Bay Battalion in 2018-19, Brazeau was only able to parlay that into an AHL deal with the Maple Leafs.
Unable to establish himself as a key cog in Toronto’s prospect pipeline, Brazeau ultimately latched onto the Bruins after signing with the organization in 2021-22. He spent time in the ECHL with the Maine Mariners before logging 167 total games with Providence.
Brazeau’s blend of size and finishing talent in Grade-A ice made him a prospect worth reeling in. That belief has now yielded strong returns when Boston needs it most further down on its depth chart.
After establishing himself as one of Boston’s top surprises during regular-season play (five goals, two assists over 19 games), Brazeau was reinserted into the Bruins lineup in Game 5 vs. Toronto — his first taste of game action in over three weeks after suffering an upper-body injury in Nashville on April 2.
His postseason re-entry was “rusty” against Toronto in Game 5, according to Montgomery. He logged 9:36 of ice time in Boston’s Game 6 loss to the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
But everything fell back into place during Boston’s do-or-die Game 7 on Saturday. Slotted up next to Trent Frederic and James van Riemsdyk on the third line, Brazeau led all Bruins players in shot attempts (10) and scoring chances (six) against Toronto. He recorded the secondary helper on Hampus Lindholm’s equalizer in the third period — the byproduct of an extended puck-possession clinic.
That momentum carried over into Monday’s series opener against Florida — with Brazeau’s burst of acceleration while gaining separation from Ekblad standing as proof of the strides that the winger has made since joining the Bruins’ organization.
“That’s been something my entire career, I think — I’ve always been told that I’m not a good enough skater,” Brazeau acknowledged. “So it’s something I’ve always worked on. I still work on to this day. So it was obviously nice to get that.”
Brazeau and his new linemates’ impact went well beyond his highlight-reel tally. In the 21:43 of 5-on-5 ice time that the Van Riemsdyk-Frederic-Brazeau line has logged together during the postseason, the Bruins have outscored opponents, 2-0, and hold a commanding 9-0 edge in high-danger scoring chances.
“I think we can be really good,” Brazeau said. “I think we play a similar type of game. We try to keep it simple. I don’t think we try to overcomplicate anything. I think we’re just focusing on doing a good job on the forecheck and really supporting each other. So when we create a stalled puck, we get it back. So I think that plays to our strengths and it’s been good so far.”
If the Bruins plan on extending their season into late May and early June, they’re going to need their forwards to generate looks from Grade-A ice. Having a player with Brazeau’s size certainly helps achieve said goal as a netfront monolith and a puck vacuum along the end boards.
But Montgomery and his coaches believe that there’s far more to Brazeau’s game than just his size. It’s a belief validated by Monday’s skilled finish against Bobrovsky, and spurred after years of faith poured into a player looking to finally earn his shot.
So far, Brazeau is making the most of it.
“The plays we’re seeing in Game 7 he made and tonight — we were seeing that in the regular season,” Montgomery said of Brazeau. “And that’s why I put him in Game 5 because he needed to get into a rhythm and we kept playing him because we believe he’s an excellent hockey player that can really help you — offensively and defensively. So that’s why — what you’re noticing there is something that we think is part of him.”
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