Frederic Finding His Offensive Touch

PITTSBURGH - Trent Frederic has garnered plenty of headlines for his play thus far this season. His demonstrations of agitation and toughness, which have included heavy weight bouts with the likes of Tom Wilson - twice - and Brendan Lemieux, often get the most attention and have quickly made him a favorite among the Bruins faithful.
But in recent games, it's been his offensive game that has begun to make a difference for the Black & Gold. After going his first 32 career games without a goal, including the first 15 of this season, the 23-year-old has scored four times over his last 12 contests with three of those tallies - over a nine-game span - proving to be game-winners.
Frederic had the eventual winners in Boston's 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Feb. 28 and the B's 5-1 smackdown of the Washington Capitals on March 5. Both of those goals came in the second period, but on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, it was Frederic's third-period marker that truly made the difference.

With the game tied toward the midway point of the final frame, Frederic took a feed from Jakub Zboril and fired a wrister from the high slot that soared past Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith - with the help of a brilliant screen from David Pastrnak - to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead, which they held on to en route to a much-needed victory at PPG Paints Arena. It was Boston's first five-on-five goal in over nine periods of play.
"It was nice. It felt good to score," said Frederic, who also scored in the third period of Boston's win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe on Feb. 16. "Just felt good to win. Right now, we're not finding the back of the net but it's a work in progress and it's coming. The last game we put up 45 shots or something, tip the hat to the goalie last night and even tonight. They played well.
"This is a hard league to score in, there's good goalies. Tonight, my goal was good net front. It was mostly Pasta, probably deserved my goal and I'm just the one that got credit for it."

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy also pointed out Pastrnak's screen, noting that Boston has been searching for more of a net presence during its offensive struggles over the past couple of weeks. He also complimented Frederic's decision to shoot the puck - even from the tops of the circles - another part of the B's offensive game that has been lacking.
"Well, we need it. It's been discussed. People have to pitch in," said Cassidy. "Great job by Pasta in front of the net. You need the net presence. We've encouraged guys to go to the net. I think, honestly, lately, we've blocked a lot of our own potential goals going to the net…we've had a few like that.
"But the fact that you have a net presence always creates problems…good for Freddy to shoot. We've been reticent to do that, put pucks on net. Doesn't always have to be the perfect goal…sometimes you've got to get those greasy ones. We certainly needed it.
"It's one, we're certainly searching for more. We'll take this one, it got us two points and hopefully build in Buffalo."

Full Steen Ahead

Daniel Vladar wasn't the only Bruin to make his regular-season debut on Tuesday night, as forward Oskar Steen also suited up for his first NHL game. The 23-year-old, who played the right wing, switching between Boston's second and third lines, landed two shots on goal and five hits - second to Charlie Coyle's six - in 9:13 of ice time.
Cassidy was pleased with the former sixth-round pick's play and complimented the natural centerman's work along the boards.
"I thought he was good…all in all, I thought he did his job," said Cassidy. "I thought he was pretty good on the walls for a kid that has played more center. We'll look closer [at it on video], but he helped us win. I noticed some good things, some pucks battles. I noticed him wanting to attack and he put pucks on net. Some of them were from bad angles, but that's part of what we're trying to build in.
"To have a shooting mentality is a good thing. All in all, I'd say mostly good stuff but, again, we'll look at it and decide if he's a better fit for [David] Krejci or Coyle going forward and see what our lineup looks like Thursday."

Tinordi Injured

Blue liner Jarred Tinordi suffered an upper-body injury on an ugly play in the second period of Tuesday night's win and did not return to the game. Tinordi took a heavy hit from Penguins forward Brandon Tanev after dumping the puck into Pittsburgh's end and crashed violently into the boards in front of the Bruins bench.
Tinordi appeared to hit his head off the boards and was down on the ice before being tended to by Bruins trainers Don DelNegro and Joe Robinson. He eventually retreated to the dressing room with some assistance.
Tanev was assessed a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, which was confirmed after video review by the officiating crew.
"Upper body, not great," Cassidy said of the injury. "But we'll have a better evaluation or better diagnosis [on Wednesday]."
While Cassidy did not have a significant update on Tinordi's condition, he acknowledged that it's unlikely he'd have the defenseman available for Thursday's game against Buffalo. If that's the case, Cassidy said he will turn to either Urho Vaakanainen or first-year pro Jack Ahcan, who is with the team in Buffalo after being recelled to the taxi squad from Providence earlier this week.
"Could be Ahcan. He's a smaller body but gives you more of a dynamic puck movement," said Cassidy. "We'll look at Buffalo and see what the best fit would be. Vaak's been the one that's been playing, but Ahcan is here.
"I'm not gonna rule out Tinordi yet. At least get a better diagnosis tomorrow. But doesn't look encouraging right now for Thursday but we'll make that decision [on Wednesday]."