Lucic Makes Most of Return to Boston

BOSTON – Milan Lucic has never shied away from expressing his admiration for the Spoked-B. Even during his eight-year hiatus, the hulking winger always made sure that his appreciation for Boston and his time in a Bruins uniform was well known.

So, as the club commenced its Centennial on Wednesday night with a stirring pregame ceremony, during which all of the Bruins’ living retired numbers – as well as a bevy of former Stanley Cup champs – participated, he couldn’t help but soak it all in.

“It was great. Obviously, I was really looking forward to it, so it was a real special moment for me. To be honest, I was just soaking it all in like a fan. I was on the bench going, ‘this is really cool to be a part of and a real special moment for hockey history,’” Lucic said following the Bruins’ 3-1 Opening Night win over the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden.

“To see all of the legends that are here, former teammates, and to be part of the whole ceremony here tonight was something special to be a part of. It just adds to being back in Boston.”

Then, of course, it was Lucic’s turn to get his due.

As No. 17 was announced during pregame introductions, the TD Garden crowd erupted into a thunderous “Looooooocchhhh” chant as he skated to the blue line, where he tapped his heart and waved to the fans, the emotion in his face evident.

“It’s a special time in your life, those years that I spent here, so to be able to come back that is so special to me, it’s good to have emotion and show emotion,” said Lucic.

That emotion clearly carried over once the game began, as Lucic put forth one of the best performances of the night, while picking up an assist on David Pastrnak’s eventual game-winning tally when he delivered a backhand feed over to his longtime friend, who finished off a 2-on-1 with a far-side wrister by the glove of Chicago goalie Arvid Soderblom at 13:09 of the second to give Boston a 2-1 lead.

“He's had a really good camp and he's carried it over,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. “He came here in tremendous shape. Not only what you guys see on the ice, but the way he's talking on the bench. He's taken over a real important leadership role of talking about how to build our team game, about the important details.

“He was saying, last two minutes of the first, ‘you got to get pucks in, get pucks out.’ And it's just good reminders and it means more to the teammates when it comes from a player.”

Overall, Montgomery was quite pleased with his bottom-six, including the fourth line of Lucic, Jakub Lauko (penalty drawn), and Johnny Beecher, who was making his NHL debut.

“I thought they were really good,” said Montgomery. “I thought our third line was really good if you could call it that too. I thought those two lines, they got a lot of minutes because they were rewarded. They played really well.”

The combination of speed and size certainly worked in their favor.

“I thought we spent the majority of the time in the O-zone, created a penalty, and even first shift we had a scoring chance right off the get go,” said Lucic. “We’re three guys that play straight line hockey and need to use our size and speed. That provides the team energy and gives the team success.”

Lucic’s veteran presence was also a benefit to Beecher and Lauko, who was suiting up for just his 24^th career game.

“It helps a lot,” said Beecher. “I mean, we’re both so young and so new to the league. I joked with Looch today, he asked if today was my first [game] and I asked what number he was on, and he said one thousand, one hundred and something… so, he’s definitely got a lot more experience than us and just does a good job of keeping us levelheaded.”

And even for some of the players that have been around, Lucic is making his impact felt.

“Having a guy like that come in, you see how much respect he has right away in the league, not only in this room, and it's funny to see at times when he's on the ice with the puck because the seas just part at times,” said Carlo. “He has stepped right in and been vocal, not been shy at all. “I think he's done a great job. He chimed in a couple of times in between periods. And he's all about keeping the foot on the gas. Not stepping back at all.”

A Centennial Celebration

It was a special night to be part of the Bruins family.

To kick off the club’s Centennial, dozens of B’s legends returned to be part of the festivities, which included an emotional pregame ceremony featuring players from the club’s championships teams in 1970, 1972, and 2011, family members of the deceased retired numbers, and all the living retired numbers.

“I thought the ceremony was fantastic,” said Montgomery. “Great tribute to the 100 years of great players. I thought it was great that the unfortunate ones that couldn't be with us, that family members represented them. And to see Cam Neely and Ray Bourque and Johnny Bucyk and Terry O'Reilly and Bobby Orr – what innovation he got…well deserved, right? But it makes you feel special to be a Bruin.”

For those new to the Black & Gold, the moment wasn’t any less special.

“Bobby Orr came in here before the game. I got to shake his hand; that was crazy,” said Matt Poitras, who was making his NHL debut. “It’s an honor to play for an organization like this. There’s so much history…saw that before the game. Just watching that pregame video, I had chills going down my spine, so it kind of gets you fired up, and obviously you want to play good with all of those guys in the building.”

Wait, There’s More

• Trent Frederic potted the Bruins’ first goal of the season when he tipped home a Carlo shot at 11:22 of the first to tie things at 1. “[Matthew Poitras] made a really good play pulling up. Brando had a good shot and just happened to be in front and tipped it in,” said Frederic. “I just tried to get a stick on it and Brando had a good shot. Potsy kinda started it all. It was the end of our shift and he made a great play pulling up and we need to do that more.”
• The assist for Poitras was, of course, his first NHL point. “I felt pretty good. Felt good out there. It was nice to kind of get that first point out of the way then kind of roll from there,” said Poitras. “There weren’t too many nerves. Once I got that first shift out of the way, then everything kind of faded away…I felt like it was definitely faster. It was definitely harder to hold onto pucks. It just kind of ramped up a bit.”
• Beecher dropped the glove with veteran Jason Dickinson in the third period after the rookie committed a boarding penalty on Chicago’s Cole Guttman. “Just trying to make a big hit, unfortunately caught the guy at a little bit of an awkward angle,” said Beecher. “Had to kind of turn around and face the outcome… but had no problem with doing it. I was actually able to kind of offset the penalty [with an instigator], so it worked out.”
• Overall, Montgomery termed the Bruins’ game as “very average” despite the victory. “. I didn't think we grew our game, but it's the first game of the year,” he said. “If I think back on our first game last year, the only thing I liked about last year more than this year is we played faster. I didn’t think we played fast enough, consistently enough. But you expect there's going to be things and there's a lot of things to work on. You expect that in game one. We got the result. We did a lot of good things, I thought, in the third period to build our game.”
• Montgomery on seeing Bergeron as part of the pregame festivities and not on the bench in uniform. “It was different, especially when he got the ovation,” he said. “I'm just really happy for Bergy. He seems so at peace and so happy. The only thing I felt is I wish I would have won a Cup for him. That's what I felt, to be honest.”