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Marco Sturm: ‘Pretty good chance’ James Hagens will play in Game 1 for Bruins
"We would be stupid not to use him — see if he makes a difference or not."
Just a week after making his NHL debut on the road against Columbus, Bruins top prospect James Hagens is in line to play his first playoff game.
Speaking to reporters on Friday morning at Warrior Ice Arena, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said that Hagens has a good shot of being in the lineup for Boston’s first-round series opener against the Sabres — with Game 1 in Buffalo set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
“We didn’t decide yet, but there’s a pretty good chance, I’d say, that James might play Game 1,” Sturm said. “It’s just the last two games, he gave me a lot of excitement. … He did a pretty good job with the puck, managing the puck, playing without the puck, never got in trouble as a line with [Fraser] Minten and [Marat Khusnutdinov], I feel like there’s some chemistry.
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“So a lot of good happened in those two games and, yeah, we’ll see how the next few days play out. But I’m very, very excited about that.”
A day earlier, Hagens was a full participant during Thursday’s practice at the team’s facility in Brighton – skating alongside his usual linemates in Minten and Khusnutdinov.
Even with just two NHL games under his belt, the 19-year-old Hagens brought plenty of pace, forechecking pressure, and strong wall play to Boston’s bottom-six grouping.
After recording a secondary assist in Boston’s win over Columbus last Sunday, Hagens regularly pressured puck carriers and jump-started his club’s transition game during Tuesday’s regular season finale against the Devils.
So far, Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov likes what he sees from that third line — a trio that has an average age of just 21 years old.
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“I’m impressed,” Zadorov said Friday. “I mean, this year, we’ve got three unbelievable kids, and they’re all playing on the same line right now. It’s fun to watch. … Against New Jersey, you can see how smart [Hagens] is on the ice, how good his stick is, and, yeah, I’m excited for him to experience what I’m going to experience on Sunday as well.
“First playoff game, I remember mine. It was when [Nashville] was buzzing, and we went for warmups. It was like 20,000 people wearing orange and yellow, and they were just screaming how [bad] you are. … I had goosebumps. James is going to experience that on Sunday in Buffalo, and it’s going to be incredible.”
Beyond generating offense further down on the depth chart, Hagens’s skating ability and creativity with the puck on his stick could also come in handy on the power play.
Even though Boston didn’t log any power-play reps across Hagens’s two games in the NHL ranks this week, Sturm stressed on Friday that the young forward will be on the man advantage during the postseason.
“That’s his biggest strength, is on the power play,” Sturm said of Hagens. “So we would be stupid not to use him — see if he makes a difference or not. But yes, if he plays, he will definitely be on the power play.”
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Boston’s power play ranked ninth in the NHL this season, but tailed off down the stretch, ranking just 28th overall after the Winter Olympics with just a 16.2 percent success rate.
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