After quiet start, Morgan Geekie is starting to heat up on Bruins’ top line
"If I see him for a one-timer, it's gonna be a bullet."
Nikita Zadorov might have said it best on Saturday night.
“Hockey gods were on Geeks’ side today,” the Bruins’ blueliner noted.
A little over 10 minutes after Morgan Geekie’s tie-breaking tally was taken off the board due to an offside review, the Bruins’ winger would not be denied.
After David Pastrnak took Geekie’s initial goal off the board by gliding over the blue line too soon, he saw an opportunity to rectify his mistake.
In the waning seconds of a power play, Pastrnak gathered a feed from Mason Lohrei and looked to pass from the half-wall. Rather than feed the puck over to a Charlie Coyle in the low slot, Pastrnak lofted a pass over a lurking Geekie further up the frozen sheet.
Geekie’s attempt may have been a bit outside of Grade-A ice, but Pastrnak wasn’t going to overthink things.
“Yeah, my eyes were all on Geeks,” Pastrnak said.
Geekie’s one-timer attempt was on target, sailing past Buffalo netminder James Reimer with 1:45 left on the clock to lift Boston past the Sabres at TD Garden.
Saturday’s eventual 3-1 win over a Buffalo team now in the midst of a 13-game losing streak won’t make many year-end highlight reels.
But in a disjointed game where Boston’s sluggish skating legs allowed a woeful Sabres roster to hang around, Geekie’s play stood out as one positive worth harping on.
The hockey gods might have been on Geekie’s side in the third period, but lighting the lamp has not exactly been an outlier for the 26-year-old forward as of late.
Following Saturday’s win, Geekie has now scored five goals (and seven points) in his last eight games — giving a top line featuring Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha a much-needed scoring boost.
“I think he’s obviously playing on a good line with two very good offensive players, but he’s finding his niche out there right now,” Joe Sacco said of Geekie’s contributions. “He’s finding some open ice because he can shoot, and he’s getting to the netfront, which I think is very important for that line.
“I know he scored from outside here tonight at the end of the power play, but more often in the offensive zone — that line needs someone to drive to the front of the net. And he’s been doing a much better job of that, opening up space for the other two guys on the outside.”
Geekie, like several other key cogs on Boston’s forward corps, has had a fall to forget when it comes to his baseline production.
After setting career-highs last season in both goals (17) and points (39) in his first campaign with Boston, Geekie was expected to build off of the heavier reps handed his way with the Bruins.
But that promise of production waned in short order. Geekie entered December with just two goals over his first 22 games — spending several games as a healthy scratch as he tried to find his footing.
Pushing him up to the top line served as no guarantee for a spike in scoring, given Zacha’s sluggish start (three goals in 23 games) and Pastrnak’s dip in tallies (12 goals in 35 games).
But Geekie has started to find his groove doing the dirty work on that grouping, opening up more soft ice and shooting lanes while creating turnovers on the forecheck (team-high four hits vs. Buffalo).
“I think just our line, we’ve got a little bit more chemistry,” Geekie said. “I think we’ve been playing a little bit more. Not passing up shots, trying to get pucks to the net. So I’m trying to get to the net as much as I can with these two.
“I know they like to make plays and get the puck inside, and someone’s got to do the dirty work a little bit and get inside the crease. So just keep building on that.”
Geekie may be at his best making life easier for his other two linemates, but Pastrnak believes that his shot is still an undervalued weapon on a Bruins team woefully short on proven finishers.
“Geeks especially has a great one-timer and heck of a wrist shot,” Pastrnak said. “He’s a great shooter. So I know that if I see him for a one-timer, it’s gonna be a bullet, so I try to get to him.”
Saturday’s win over a team like Buffalo will do little to dissuade those who find Boston’s 10-4-1 record under Sacco a mirage, given the quality of some of their opponents.
But an ugly win stands as a sizable improvement over the alternative, especially against a team like Buffalo.
“Obviously, we weren’t at our best tonight, and Buffalo played very well,” Sacco said. “They deserve credit. They came out, they showed that they were a desperate team tonight looking for a win. …. I really liked our resiliency, and I liked the way we stuck with it. We responded, and that’s the most important thing tonight.”
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