Some of that beating came with countless assists to ex-NHLer Pat Falloon, the No. 2 pick (San Jose) in the 1991 draft who grew up not far away in Foxwarren. Craig Geekie and Falloon, both now in their early-50s, are lifelong pals and were teammates on the Manitoba team (the Ile-des-Chenes North Stars) that in 2003 captured the prestigious Allan Cup, Canadian senior hockey’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup.

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“I know a lot of people hear senior hockey and think it’s just rec hockey, a bunch of old guys and beer,” said the senior Geekie, a defenseman who played top-level junior hockey in Canada and had a brief twirl as a pro in the Central Hockey League. “But really, it was great hockey. We’d get 700-1,000 fans to our games, people screaming and hanging over the glass. It was crazy.”

Morgan, 27, now in his third season with the Bruins and No. 2 in NHL goal scoring as of Saturday morning, grew up shooting with old sticks Falloon occasionally would drop off when shuttling between his current home in Winnipeg and his hometown. Falloon, who was the pick immediately after Eric Lindros in ‘91, shot from the right side. Ditto for Morgan.

The old sticks, recalled Craig Geekie, “had lost their whip, or Patty just didn’t like the feel, or whatever,” leading dad to cut them down and tape them for Morgan to use. Conor, a left shot, couldn’t use Falloon’s hand-me-down twigs. Morgan, though, liked the feel and fit, particularly the curve of the stick blade. Falloon’s imperfect sticks were a perfect fit for Morgan and his parents.

“Morgan would have been, what, 3-4-5 years old and I just kept using ‘em,” recalled Craig. “Because, I don’t know, [the boys’ mother] Tobi and I weren’t prepared to spend the big bucks on these crazy sticks. It’s kind of funny because I don’t think I realized how important Morgan felt it was in developing his shot.”

Looking back, noted Craig, he never intended for the sticks to be the shooter tutor they became.

“It was Tobi and I being frugal, with three boys, trying to save a buck or two,” he said. “We just said, ‘Morgan, if you can learn to shoot with that, you can shoot with anything.’ Obviously, that worked, because his shot is … well, it’s a lot better than dad’s, that’s for sure.”

Morgan Geekie (right) caught up with his brother Conor when the Bruins visited the Lightning last January.Mike Carlson/Getty

Some of Morgan’s sizzling slappers have been clocked this season at a tick above 100 miles per hour, a league high. Falloon could shoot, but not in that rarified triple-digit air. Former teammate Brad Marchand last season, as Bruins captain, was effusive about Geekie’s shot and implored him to let it rip more often.

Geekie in 2024-25 scored a career-high 33 times and entered this weekend with 21 goals in 29 games this season, a pace that could make him only the third 60-goal scorer in Bruins history, joining Phil Esposito and current teammate David Pastrnak.

Craig Geekie, who coached his sons throughout their days in Strathclair youth hockey, didn’t preach the slapper. Instead, he advocated for the wrister, believing rule No. 1 is to get the puck on net.

“I don’t know if there was anything really special,” said Craig, who has spent the last 30-plus years in sales (now as a manager) for a local John Deere dealership. “I showed him how to shoot the puck to the best of my ability. I was kind of a … I guess a hardo dad, maybe … but I wouldn’t let him take a slap shot until he mastered the wrist shot.”

The senior Geekie in those years, too, was the president of the local indoor arena, leaving the three Geekie boys holding the keys to the kingdom. In a town of no more than 150 residents, with winters long and cold, and that outdoor shed sometimes covered deep with snow, the rink offered both refuge and a place for skills refinement.

“Anytime that they were on the ice,” said Craig, “they were always fooling around, shooting the puck. Even after games, they’d be out there, shooting and fooling around. They had a lot of free time on the ice, I guess I would say, time that kids don’t have now. I do attribute that to his success.”

Conor Geekie, the youngest of the three boys, was a first-round selection (No. 11) of the Coyotes in 2022. He made his NHL debut with Tampa Bay last season and this year has been up and down with the Lightning. A left shot, Noah gravitated to baseball in his early teens, played ball in college, and today lives in Alberta, where he coaches and is facility coordinator at the Okotoks Dawgs Academy.

Craig Geekie played senior hockey into his mid-30s. Morgan, then about grammar school age, sometimes was in the stands for those games.

“Pat Falloon was there, playing,” recalled Morgan, “and a lot of guys who’d played junior and [minor] pro. I know it sounds stupid, like, ‘Oh, it’s just senior hockey.’ But those guys won the Allan Cup, then went to Japan to play in another tournament. It’s tough for people to comprehend, because it’s like, ‘Who are these guys?’ But they took it seriously. They’d bus to games. The whole thing was super cool at the time.”

Craig Geekie and Falloon stay in touch, often meeting up when Falloon stops in Strathclair en route to Foxwarren to visit his family farm in the summer. Falloon is “fully retired” now, said Geekie, and they are never short for things to talk about — including Allan Cup days, mutual pals, and that Geekie kid in Boston who turned Falloon’s old sticks into fame and fortune.

“Patty’s pretty humble. I would say he wouldn’t take any credit,” said Craig. “People know the story, so we do joke about it, but a lot of what we talk about is just everyday stuff. Indirectly, it comes up, and we do have a chuckle.”

With a laugh, Craig dismissed the suggestion, meant in jest, that his old pal might come looking for royalties.

“Definitely not!” he said. “That’s one thing I’ve always admired about Patty, through all the years of contracts and being able to afford pretty much anything, he was always humble, always came back to his roots. And to me, that’s kind of where we tried to teach the kids: remember where you came from, because it takes a village or a community to raise kids. We had the very fortunate community, Patty had the same thing in Foxwarren. It’s pretty special.”

Alex Steeves (right) has scored six goals in 13 games this season.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

GRADUATION RATES

Steeves accounts for classwork to earn degree

Alex Steeves, who has climbed up the Bruins’ offensive pop charts with a rattle and hum at nearly U2 levels, earlier this year finally completed his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame.

The Bruins winger, who will celebrate his 26th birthday Wednesday, turned pro with the Maple Leafs after his junior year in South Bend in 2021, and this spring completed the two courses that satisfied his major in accounting.

“I’m kind of a statistician, in terms of my background,” said Steeves, reflecting on what thus far has been his impressive scoring touch since being called up from AHL Providence in early November. “I just believe in law of averages. I’ll never stop shooting and hopefully the production will come.”

Uncertain of his path to the pros, Steeves said he had an internship in place at one of the Big Four accounting firms for the summer following his junior year at Notre Dame. When the Maple Leafs came calling with an opportunity, he temporarily put aside the calculator, desk job, and graduation gown.

Now, four-plus years later, Steeves is clutching a diploma and his first guaranteed one-way NHL deal. The Bruins wooed him away from Toronto with a one-year guarantee of $850,000, more than a $500K bump over the guarantee his two-way deal offered last season with the Leafs.

“I’m kind of someone who’s always been passed over in my life,” said Steeves, noting his mind-set while still at Notre Dame and even earlier. “When I was college age, or leading up to it, I didn’t know I was going to play [NCAA Division 1]. I wasn’t drafted and never knew for sure that I was going to play pro hockey, so I was thinking of ways to take care of life after hockey.”

Steeves scored again, his sixth goal in 13 games with the Black and Gold, in Thursday’s win over St. Louis. Promoted from the WannaB’s as relief for a depleted bottom six, in three weeks he found himself at No. 1 left wing, riding with Elias Lindholm at center and Morgan Geekie on the right side. But for a hit post or two, and a couple of slight misfires, he might have carried 10 goals into Saturday night’s matchup with the Devils at the Garden.

Geekie, hired on in the summer of ’23, has become second only to Zdeno Chara as the club’s most impressive free agent hires. It’s still early to think Steeves could be mentioned in the same conversation for free agent steals, but the hot start has been extremely impressive. He has displayed a keen sense for getting to prime shooting spots and launching shots from high-danger areas, and finishing.

In his four seasons trying to work his way up the Maple Leafs’ charts, Steeves appeared in only 14 NHL games and scored but one goal. However, he credits Toronto coach Craig Berube’s insistence last season that he increase his physical play as a key growth ring.

“I was called up for a look my rookie year and I didn’t feel I was there,” said Steeves. “I thought I could still contribute for a short span, but didn’t feel I was ready to be a fulltime NHLer. Toward the end of my second year, then pretty much on from there, I always felt like I was ready — at least for more of an opportunity and an extended look. For different reasons, it never really happened.

“I do think, spending as much time in the American League as I did, even though I felt I was ready earlier, it really helped me. It really developed my confidence as a goal scorer. I would have loved to make the jump earlier, but I still tried to add parts to my game while I was waiting for what I kept telling myself would eventually come.”

The Olympic rink on the outskirts of Milan is said to be 3 feet short of NHL regulation.Luca Bruno/Associated Press

A lot of pearl clutching in recent days over word that the ice sheet at the Olympic rink in Milan will be roughly 36 inches short of the NHL’s standard 200 feet. One word: relax. As one who watched some 30 years of NHL hockey in the old Garden’s cozy rink on Causeway Street, your faithful puck chronicler can tell you size matters, and shorter is even better, though really barely obvious from the stands. The far bigger issue is that construction time is running short and the big rink (Milano Santa Giulia) is far from being issued a certificate of occupancy. All parties hoped the 16,000-seat rink would be ready by the heart of December. Now it appears, at best, the sheet won’t be game tested until this time in January, less than a month before the first women’s preliminary game (Italy-France) on Feb. 5. Keep in mind that new arenas invariably require months, sometimes up to a year or more, to fine tune a quality, durable sheet of ice. If there’s a problem at Olympus this time, the bet here is that it’s not the building, or the sheet dimension, but the integrity of the playing surface. Bad ice makes for bad everything … Sidney Crosby entered weekend play with 18 goals in 26 games, ranking the Penguins superstar tied for third with the Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard. Sid No Longer the Kid is tracking for 57 goals, a half dozen more than the career-best 51 he potted in 2009-10, his lone 50-goal season. Now 38 years and 122 days old (as of Sunday), Crosby would be the oldest NHLer ever to reach 50. Current oldest: Alex Ovechkin, age 36 and 215 days when notching No. 50 for the Capitals in the 2021-22 season. Next on that list is John Bucyk, who was 35 years and 308 days upon reaching No. 50 with the Bruins on March 16, 1971. The youngest was Wayne Gretzky, age 19 and 67 days when knocking home No. 50 with the Oilers in 1979-80. … Touching, classy scene postgame Tuesday in Los Angeles, where Ovechkin mustered his Capitals teammates for a handshake line with Anze Kopitar. The legendary Kings center announced in September that he will retire in the spring after 20 NHL seasons. “A sad moment, but it’s life,” Ovechkin said. The Capitals and Kings won’t meet again this year unless it’s the Stanley Cup Final. Along with his name being etched in the Cup twice, Kopitar twice was named the Selke Trophy winner and three times the Lady Byng winner. Retired Bruin Patrice Bergeron is the all-time leader with six Selke wins. Incredibly, he never was deemed worthy of the Byng, awarded each year for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct. Now only 11 months, by the way, from Bergeron likely being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame … The family name Geekie has Scottish roots. “Kind of a strange name, to be honest, right?” offered Craig Geekie, the father of the Bruins’ Morgan while noting the family has its own tartan. “But that’s OK. I’ve been called a lot of things worse than Geekie.” The proper Scottish spelling, he said, is Greekie, and the family has roots in Aberdeenshire. With Colorado’s Nate MacKinnon topping the goal scoring charts, that gives the NHL Scotsmen 1-2 atop the leader board.

Boston Globe Sports Report host Ben Volin chats with the former Bruins goaltender.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.