The game was about to slip away from the Bruins in Chicago last Saturday night.<\/p>\n
They were clearly the better team, but the Blackhawks had a 2-1 lead in the second period and it looked like they would surely make it 3-1 when the Hawks broke in on a 2-on-1.<\/p>\n
Joonas Korpisalo looked like he had no chance to go post-to-post after the cross pass. But out of nowhere, Alex Steeves came flying in on the backcheck to break up what appeared to be a tap-in. The crisis was averted and the B\u2019s scored the next four goals to win going away.<\/p>\n
But if that puck had found the back of the net, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to which way that game would have gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, Korpi told me he would have given me an eight-year extension after that backcheck,\u201d Steeves with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Steeves didn\u2019t get eight years from the Bruins, but he did get two, and that\u2019s two years more than anyone thought he would get when he was sent to Providence near the end of training camp. The B\u2019s announced the deal that will pay him $1.625 million a year on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels really good. I had expectations but there\u2019s also always unknowns when you change organizations in free agency. But ultimately they\u2019ve given me a really good opportunity,\u201d said Steeves. \u201cIt\u2019s just really a special feeling and I\u2019m appreciative that they believe in who I am as a person and player and my potential so it feels really good. The opportunity to be a Bruin for two more years is something I don\u2019t want to pass up on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeves\u2019 story is one of perseverance. He spent four years in the Toronto organization going up and down \u2013 mostly down. He got 14 NHL games in that time before signing with the B\u2019s in the offseason. He did not make opening night roster but, when injuries hit he was called up in November and did not squander the opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great story,\u201d said coach Marco Sturm. \u201cHopefully it\u2019s going to help some other young guys to believe in themselves and also see how a guy like Alex Steeves worked on it. It\u2019s not like I just gave him a chance, no, he actually worked on it. Stuck with it, went back to the minors, got called up, got his chance. Now here we are, he\u2019s got a two-year contract. Hopefully it\u2019s going to help a little bit, especially the guys in the minors to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeves did not despair when he was sent to Providence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely felt confident that I\u2019d be back,\u201d said Steeves. \u201cMy mindset was things didn\u2019t go my way over a two-and-a-half week sample. Life goes on. I\u2019m still extremely lucky to play this game and being in an organization like this. I wanted to go down, get a good start, find some confidence, be a leader in that locker room. Then things took care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Steeves broke into pro hockey as a goal scorer, and he\u2019s been fairly prolific at it in the AHL, he has had to add other elements to his game. He went into Thursday\u2019s game against Vegas on a 12-game goal drought but his physicality and his energy has kept him in the lineup. Plays like the one in Chicago are what has allowed him to hang around.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it starts with physicality and defense, managing the game well,\u201d said Steeves. \u201cYou can see it right now. I\u2019m in a stretch where I haven\u2019t scored in a little bit. But I was thinking about that the other day. My entire hockey career, every single season I\u2019ve had stretches like this. I had a stretch like this last season and I scored (36) goals. It would be pretty naive to think that I\u2019d break into the hardest league in the world and not have a stretch like this in my rookie year. That B game, I\u2019m working on it. And things will fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeves joins Jonathan Aspirot as a former long-time minor leaguer who earned multi-year contracts with the B\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs players, it\u2019s really, really tough to break into this league,\u201d said Steeves. \u201cI guess it\u2019s cool to see that if you earn it, you can do it. It\u2019s possible. I\u2019m really happy for Aspy. He earned that contract and I\u2019m grateful to have the same opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassidy praises Sturm<\/p>\n
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy coached in the B\u2019s organization for 15 years, the last six-plus as head coach in Boston. He has been impressed with the job Sturm has done in his first season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey play hard,\u201d said Cassidy. \u201cWhen we saw them early in the year, there was a lot of newness, players and coaching systems. They\u2019re a different team now. They\u2019ve kind of got their feet under them in how they want to play and their identity. To me, I see a Bruins with an identity that I saw for a long time and a long time before I was here. They\u2019ve found that again. They\u2019re going to play hard and they\u2019re going well. I think that\u2019s just a product of a new style of play and players. And health. We all go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eichel visits BU<\/p>\n
North Chelmsford native Jack Eichel spent the Knights\u2019 off day over at Boston University, where he played for a season and took the Terriers to the NCAA championship game before losing to Providence College at the Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a cool. I had a lot of fond memories there. BU\u2019s a special place for me. I had a very memorable year there. Unfortunately it ended in this room here,\u201d said Eichel, sitting in the visitor\u2019s room at the Garden. \u201cBut it\u2019s really cool to be able to talk to the guys on that team to try and give them a little bit of wisdom. But I don\u2019t know. I feel like nowadays, kids are farther along at that same age than maybe I was. But BU\u2019s a great place. It was cool to practice there and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loose pucks<\/p>\n
Rasmus Andersson, the former Calgary Flames defenseman whom the B\u2019s showed interest in before Vegas obtained him, is still dealing with visa issues and is not yet with the team. Cassidy still wasn\u2019t sure if he\u2019d be able to play when on Friday in Toronto for Mitch Marner\u2019s highly anticipated return to his former city and hometown. \u2026 Jordan Harris, out since October with a broken ankle, was sent to Providence on a conditioning stint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The game was about to slip away from the Bruins in Chicago last Saturday night. They were clearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,762,530,5,1041,6164,40,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-422349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruce-cassidy","12":"tag-bruins","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jack-eichel","15":"tag-marco-sturm","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115940921429294765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}