The virus that James van Riemsdyk caught earlier this week does not sound pleasant. The Bruins’ winger said he dropped 12 pounds over the course of a few days.
But the bug at least had the good taste to leave van Riemsdyk’s body in time for him to be in the lineup for Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia’ Flyers, before which he was going to be honored for playing his 1,000th game. After the morning skate, van Riemsdyk said that he was going to have 70-80 friends and family coming in for the game.
“That’ll be a lot of fun, lots of family, friends, couple of different coaches, some former teammates from along the way,” he said after the morning skate. “So it’s pretty special, especially t have the turnout of the people that are coming. I didn’t necessarily expect to have that many people so it’ll be pretty cool to share it with them.”
The turnout was a far cry from Game No. 1 for van Riemsdyk, a 3-1 win over the Hurricanes in Raleigh when he broke in with Flyers.
“A few of my buddies that I grew up with in New Jersey made the drive down for that. I think my parents actually missed that game, too, for whatever reason why,” said van Riemsdyk “I think I had an assist. But it’s crazy too think that that was like 15-plus years ago now.”
And van Riemsdyk has learned a few things along the way.
“The more I’ve found over the years to have consistency and having longevity (the key) is having a good routine and a process you buy into to prepare yourself to play every single night,” said van Riemsdyk. “I remember my first year, it was pretty much get to the rink, we’d watch ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ for a couple of episodes then go out and practice. Now the routine has changed quite bit since then, all the preparation that goes into it that we do every night. It was definitely nice just showing up and getting out there, but you realize the more you go into it, you learn a lot of things along the way that helps you with that.”
Van Riemsdyk was set for top line duty on Saturday on a line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. Though he’s had opportunities to score many more goals than he’s capitalized on, with 11-27-38 totals in 68 games he’s been a good bargain for $1 million. Coach Jim Montgomery said he’s added more than the numbers suggest.
“The player is as advertised. What you don’t know is the off-ice set. You don’t know how good of a teammate a guy is, and he’s a real good teammate,” said Montgomery. “It doesn’t matter what line he’s on, he’s talking to his line about how best he can support them and if it’s a younger player about what they should be trying to accomplish on the ice. He helps younger players’ focus, shift in, shift out. Then I think of how unselfish he is. He’s had tremendous success on the first power play and we move him to the second power play and it doesn’t matter. He’s never complained once. He just comes to work every day to get better. That’s why he’s had 1,000 games.”…
With his performance against the Canadiens, John Beecher earned himself a spot in the lineup again against the Flyers. Beecher won 8-of-11 faceoffs, an area that has been an issue for the B’s all year. But Montgomery liked more than the draws in Beecher’s game.
“He’s been really good on faceoffs all year. There might have been a couple of games (when he was off) and that’s going to happen as a centerman,” said Montgomery. “But more importantly, it’s how hard he played, at both goal lines, hanging onto pucks and creating turnovers. He had a great backcheck. And that’s what we want. We want players fighting to stay in the lineup. They’re earning their way because they’re pushing the needle in the right direction.”
Beecher, whose previous game for Boston was January 13 before being sent down to Providence, was happy with his performance in the circle.
“Obviously it was a huge boost for the confidence going forward and it’s something that they’re going to rely on me for down the stretch. I take a lot of pride in it, so I just have to stay dialed in and keep it going,” said Beecher, who was also happy with his overall game.
“I talked to coach this morning. I got the jitters out of the way in the first. Obviously, I’m going to be a little out of sorts in the first game back up, but as the game went on, I felt more and more comfortable and got to my game, just being hard on pucks, being in the right place at the right times. I’ve just to keep building on it.”…
Andrew Peeke also earned another game with his performance in Montreal. He’s getting his first taste of preparing for a playoff run.
“It’s all you can ask for. It’s exciting,” said Peeke. “Coming from where you were at this time to be being right at the top of the standings fighting for first place in the conference and division, it’s exciting. I haven’t had that I my pro career yet. You can feel the energy in the room, you can feel each game and what it means to everyone. That’s the most exciting part.”…
Matt Grzelcyk, who also missed Thursday’s game with an illness, returned to the ice for the morning skate and was set for a return.