NESN

Tyler Seguin Takes Home Seventh Player Award, Then Takes Friendly Jab at Buddy Brad Marchand

BOSTON – Tyler Seguin didn't score during Tuesday’s game against the Penguins, but he did all right for himself before the game.

He also landed a scoring jab on linemate and buddy Brad Marchand after the game.

Seguin was honored before Boston's 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh as the NESN Seventh Player Award winner, as voted on by Bruins fans at NESN.com. The award is given annually to the Bruin who went above and beyond the call of duty and exceeded the expectations of Bruins fans.

Seguin certainly fit that criteria with a team-leading 27 goals and 65 points through 79 games in his second season after managing 11-11-22 totals in 74 games as a rookie. While he was grateful for the award, Seguin also recognized that there were plenty of other candidates worthy of recognition.

"I'm very humbled and honored to be accepting that award, and obviously there's a lot of guys that could have got it,” Seguin said. "One guy that especially comes to mind is Chris Kelly. I thought he definitely deserved that award as well, but I'm very honored in accepting it."

Kelly would have been a worthy recipient with a career-high 20 goals and a plus-32 rating on the season, but Seguin's breakthrough season certainly fits the spirit of the award as well.

"The fans vote; they're entitled to vote for who they want," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "There could have been a lot of players in that category, because there's a lot of players that fit that category, you know, and that's probably why everyone has a certain opinion. But you're always happy for the guy who wins it, and the fans chose Tyler, so Tyler it is."

Naturally, Seguin couldn't accept the award without taking a shot at Marchand, who won it last season.

"Not too much, a little bit," Seguin said when asked what he knew about the history of the award. "I know Marshy got it last year, so I don't know if it's that great of an award.”

Seguin just wished his shots during the game had been on target like that barb. He had a team-high five shots on goal, with four other attempts either blocked or missing the net. That included a couple of clean breakaways that he failed to convert against Pittsburgh netminder Brent Johnson.

"Hopefully I'm saving them for the playoffs," Seguin said. "I had a couple plays tonight where I thought maybe I've got to grip my stick a bit harder. I don't know if the goalie was in my head, but I tried to go many different places, but he seemed to make some good saves so definitely some respect to him."

Seguin couldn't beat Johnson, but he has piled up plenty of points this season. That was enough to earn recognition for exceeding the fans' expectations, but has he exceeded his own expectations this year?

"I think there's always room for improvement," Seguin said. "I made a couple goals coming into this year personally. I thought I had pretty much kept most of them, but obviously you want to keep improving and keep bearing down in the D-zone. In big games like tonight, you want to walk away with no minuses on the stat sheet."

Have a question for Douglas Flynn? Send it to him via Twitter at @douglasflynn or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.