That personal matter, as it turns out, was Geekie and his wife, Emma, welcoming their second child, Max, to the world.
Geekie’s departure from the Boston lineup came during the first intermission of last Saturday’s 10-2 win over the Rangers, and with Geekie beginning that night slotted to the right of Fraser Minten and Alex Steeves on Boston’s third line. Speaking with reporters after the win, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm noted that Geekie’s family situation was “all good” and that he’d be a game-time decision for Sunday’s game.
The Bruins soldiered on without Geekie in that 1-0 win over the Penguins the next night, and had Mikey Eyssimont slot into Geekie’s spot on the third line.
But with Geekie ready to go, the Bruins are expected to go back to that third line look with Geekie skating to the right of Steeves and Minten on line three.
With Geekie admitting that his wife’s pregnancy was weighing on him, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s able to get back to playing with less on his mind and get back to potting goals like he was earlier in the season.
At the time of his move down to Boston’s third line, Geekie was in the midst of a run that’s featured just three goals in his last 14 games overall. Geekie, for what it’s worth, wasn’t stressing out about his recent dry spell, noting that it was bound to happen given how good the last year had been to him on a goal-scoring front.
With Geekie down on the third line, the Bruins are expected to stick with a top-line look that features Marat Khusnutdinov to the left of Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak.