Once a healthy scratch, Morgan Geekie is turning into a goal-scoring force for Bruins
"When you feel better about yourself, you're going to be able to play your game the way you think you can play it."
Morgan Geekie was mired in no-man’s land just a few months ago.
One of many Bruins regulars riding the momentum of a breakout campaign in 2023-24, the 26-year-old forward went from lineup regular to a healthy scratch just six weeks into the new campaign.
By the time Jim Montgomery was handed his pink slip on Nov. 19, Geekie had been scratched in five of Boston’s first 20 games — with the forward limited to just one goal over his 15 appearances.
What a difference a few months can make.
Once on the outside looking in at Boston’s impotent forward corps, Geekie has emerged as the team’s go-to sniper over the past month — complementing a top line featuring David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha thanks to a nose for the net and a sharp wrist shot.
Geekie provided all of the scoring Boston would need on Saturday afternoon against the Avalanche — lighting the lamp twice in the third period to help erase a 1-0 deficit and chart his team on the path to a 3-1 comeback win.
“I think he’s seeing it offensively right now,” interim head coach Joe Sacco said of Geekie’s recent play. “That’s from my standpoint, that’s what I see right now. That line has developed some chemistry here in the last little while.
“They’re finding their spots in the offensive zone. Reading off each other. And Geeks is doing a good job. He’s finishing his chances and 88’s playing pretty good hockey right now.”
While Pastrnak’s scorching play since the calendar flipped to 2025 has kept Boston’s flickering offense alight, the superstar forward can’t do it all by himself.
With opposing teams keying in on Pastrnak and making a concerted effort toward taking away his howitzer of a one-timer, the 28-year-old winger has had to adjust into more of a playmaker in order to coax offense out of this roster.
Of course, those efforts will only lead to pucks sailing into twine if his linemates are putting themselves in spots to bury those Grade-A looks.
Geekie has answered the call since getting promoted to Pastrnak’s line, burying several cross-crease feeds and shredding defenses on the rush off a crisp feed from his linemate.
Geekie has now scored 14 goals in his last 28 games for Boston, with only eight more players in the entire NHL finding the back of the net more over that extended stretch. That group includes superstar talents like Leon Draisaitl (19 goals), Pastrnak (15), and Auston Matthews (15).
He may not boast the same elite pedigree as those other forwards, but Sacco believes that Geekie’s confidence and understanding of his role on that top line has made him a natural fit alongside Pastrnak.
“You don’t want to take anything away from Geeks,” Sacco said. “He’s playing very well, and he’s playing on a line right now that is meshing well together. This game is a lot about how you feel about yourself, too. When you feel better about yourself, you’re going to be able to play your game the way you think you can play it.
“What I like about what he’s done is he’s complimenting that line by doing the right things. He still gets to the net front. We need a net-front presence on that line. So if it’s not a play off the rush, you look at some of his goals, and he gets right to the blue paint, and Pasta has found him there a couple of times lately, the last few games.”
After a rudderless start, Geekie has once again re-established himself as a dependable cog in Boston’s still-sputtering offensive personnel. He’s now on pace for a career-high 44 points this season, and sits just two goals away from matching his career high — with 31 games left on the schedule.
The Bruins will need more than just the Geekie-Zacha-Pastrnak line if they hope to entrench themselves in the playoff picture. But a season where little has seemingly gone right for Boston, Geekie’s resurgence has been a welcome sight.
“Just keep shooting it,” Geekie said of his mindset moving forward. “I think you kind of forget that mentality, especially when things aren’t going in. But just being able to put pucks on net.
“Any time you can do that, you gotta shoot to score. So Dave and Pav have put me in some pretty good spots lately to put the puck in the net. So just try to finish on those and capitalizing on the chances we get.”
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