The Sunday Read: Geekie Turning Heads with Hot Start

BOSTON –– David Pastrnak has high expectations for Morgan Geekie.

It is partially because it takes a goal scorer to know one.

Pastrnak sat at his stall after Geekie had potted his eighth tally of the season in the Bruins’ win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday. He does not see Geekie’s explosive production as a one-off but, instead, a pattern.​

“He has everything to score 50 in this league. I keep telling him, keep reminding him, he has a heck of a shot, and he has the goal-scoring instincts. He is going to get it one day,” Pastrnak said. “The shot that he has it’s amazing. It’s the best on our team. We just need to get him the opportunities and keep reminding him to shoot more.”

Pastrnak is no stranger to those kinds of accolades. The forward logged 61 goals in the 2022-23 season and continues to be a cornerstone of the Bruins' offense. His belief in Geekie, accordingly, is not taken lightly.

“I mean, I appreciate it. We’ll see. We’re pretty early still. Obviously, any time a player of his caliber says something like that, you take it to heart. I appreciate it,” Geekie said. “It’s still early and there’s a long way to go. It’s not really something that’s on my mind right now.”

​Geekie extended his hot start following Pastrnak’s comments and scored his ninth of the year on Thursday. The 27-year-old forward entered Saturday’s matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes on a six-game goal streak, scoring seven during that stretch.

While Geekie finished last season with 57 points (33 goals, 24 assists), he did not score his first until Nov. 12. It took until Jan. 4 for Geekie to reach his current nine-goal mark. What has changed? Geekie said he feels he is playing “more free.”

“I think it is tough to create confidence when things don’t go in. I didn’t come into the league being a guy that was going to score a bunch of goals. It is tough to become one of those people without having results,” Geekie said. “To be able to see them go in last year, especially towards the end of the year, you know you can do it. And now, when you get those opportunities this year – even the opportunities you might pass up on previously – you take those chances. Right now they seem to be going in.”

Head coach Marco Sturm has used Geekie primarily on the first line, but also briefly slotted him on the third line with Tanner Jeannot and Fraser Minten. Geekie is also a go-to guy on the first power-play unit.​

“He was one of those guys who, let’s face it, he was looking for Pasta all the time. And I always told him, ‘Be selfish.’ Because he’s a goal scorer. He got better at it,” Sturm said. “He already got better, much better. Even on the power play, you can see he’s not looking around anymore…That’s being selfish, but in a good way. That is what we want him to be because he has the quickest release, I think, on this team. We want him to use that more.”

The 21-year-old Minten, who is the youngest on the Bruins roster, has looked to Geekie as a leader as he learns what it takes to be a regular NHLer. Minten got two games with Geekie as a linemate before Elias Lindholm suffered a lower-body injury and reshuffled the forward group’s look.

​“Western Canadian guy, so great start. He’s a sick shooter, sick player,” Minten said. “You get him in space, and it’s basically a coin toss that it’s going to go in the net right now. He’s been unreal for our team, and an awesome guy off the ice, too.”

Geekie has focused on getting quality shots instead of quantity, he said. He is trying to embrace the shooting mentality without unnecessarily throwing pucks on net and taking himself out of the pace of the game.

The early production has given Geekie a strong foundation to build off for the rest of the season. He attributes some of the success to how he approached the offseason. Apart from signing a six-year contract extension that will keep him in Boston, Geekie did not over-extend himself in training.

“Just try to come in almost like a rolling start,” Geekie said. “I talked to some guys and just felt that sometimes you come over-prepared to camp and you feel really good, and then you get into games and you start going too fast and things don’t line up properly. I just tried to not taper off, but taper up, I guess, to get the season off on the right foot.”

Geekie has been a key piece to the Bruins’ current three-game win streak, and will work to keep pushing himself and the team to their highest potential.​

“I’ve still got some things I need to clean up, for sure,” Geekie said. “To get production is always nice, and the chances are coming, so we’ll just try to keep things going offensively."