As ACDC’s “Back In Black” echoes throughout the TD Garden, the old adage “if the music is too loud, you’re too old” comes to mind. NHL hockey, like loud music, is for the young guys. Gone are the days of the large, lumbering power forwards and here to stay are the speedy skilled wingers and quick, puck moving defensemen. The Boston Bruins, who under the old regime (Claude Julian) did not adopt this philosophy, have now under first full year head coach Bruce Cassidy, started to reap the benefits of jumping on the young speedy bandwagon.
The Bruins top four scorers are all under the age of 30. Brad Marchand (29) and David Pastrnak (21) are tied for the team lead in goals with 6. Rookie winger Anders Bjork (21) is second on the team with 3 goals in seven games. Charlie McAvoy (19), a rookie defenseman, leads the team in assists with 7 and is third on the team with 8 points.
In the game against the San Jose Sharks last night, another Bruins rookie, Danton Heinen (22) scored his first NHL goal when he buried a David Backes rebound past Sharks goalie Martin Jones for a short handed tally.
“Quite a storybook day for him and we’ll humble him back down tomorrow but he can certainly enjoy the night,” Backes said about Heinen. “He deserves it. He worked his butt off tonight.”
Heinen would net his second career goal in the second period, providing all of the Bruins offense as they beat the Sharks 2 to 1. Scoring the Sharks lone goal was former Bruin, Joe Thornton.
“It was pretty cool,” said Heinen. “Obviously, it’s something you dream of your whole life, and you kind of just go into shock for a bit there. It was awesome.”
Heinen, who was called up from Providence earlier this year due to injuries on the Bruins, is making the most of his time. He now has five points in his last four games.
“Obviously, you don’t like it right way,” replied Heinen, “There’s no reason to pout. There’s always injuries – you hate to see guys go down, but there’s holes that need to be filled. They’re going to call guys up, so you want to be first in line.”
When Heinen first entered the locker room for questioning, Backes threw out this proposition to the media, “”Twenty bucks if you can get him to stop smiling.”
Bruins fans are hoping that Heinen, and all of the Bruins, continue to smile for the rest of the season.
