Tyler Seguin is going to score plenty of goals in the NHL. But the first one will always remain special, so it’s only fitting that Seguin scored it with a special flair sure to keep it on highlight reels for years to come.
With the Bruins holding a two-goal lead on Phoenix midway through the third period of their second and final game in Prague on Sunday, Seguin snatched a long outlet pass from Michael Ryder with his glove, dropped the puck down to the ice and broke in on Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Seguin expertly lifted a backhander over the Phoenix netminder as he crashed through the crease, putting the finishing touch on Boston’s 3-0 victory.
“It’s always fun to see those guys score their first goal,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien in his postgame news conference. “At least he can remember that one as being a real nice goal as well. I thought it was a great move and it was nice to see him score that. Great play by Ryder to get the puck over the D’s heads and he was ready to go.”
Seguin also got some help from another veteran, as Bruins goalie Tim Thomas picked up a rare point with the secondary assist after shuffling the puck over to Ryder.
“It’s something that is going to go down in the books,” Thomas told the Boston Herald. “I always will have assisted on Tyler Seguin’s first NHL goal. That’s a pretty cool thing.”
It was also pretty cool what happened after the goal, as Bruins forward Mark Recchi made sure to retrieve the puck from the net for his young teammate.
“That’s a great feeling to score your first one,” Recchi told the Herald. “It was a great play by Rides and [Seguin] caught it. I couldn’t believe he caught it. He went in, and he’s got game-breaking speed if you give him an opportunity like that.”
Recchi has slapped 563 pucks into NHL nets himself in 22 seasons, with his first coming back on Jan. 20, 1989 — more than three years before Seguin was even born. But the Bruins’ elder statesman hasn’t forgotten what a thrill that first one is, especially when it comes on as pretty a play as Seguin’s breakaway.
“I saw the puck in the net and then I raised my arms. I wasn’t sure it was in at first,” Seguin told reporters after the game. “I didn’t imagine my first NHL game in Europe, much less my first NHL goal.”
So what did Seguin do with the historic puck Recchi retrieved for him?
“With my OHL first game puck, I gave it to my mom and told her to get it out of my sight,” Seguin told CSNNE.com. “So I have to do the same thing.”
Getting rid of the other memento from the goal will take a little longer. After all, it takes a few days for a bruise to heal.
“I don’t remember much of what anyone said, to be honest,” Seguin told the Boston Globe. “But Shawn Thornton [back at the bench] gave me a pretty strong punch in the arm.”
So now that Seguin, who had one goal in three NHL preseason games and three more in two exhibition games in Europe, has his first regular-season tally in the books, how many goals do you think he will have in his rookie campaign?
How many goals will Tyler Seguin score for the Boston Bruins in the 2010-11 season?survey software
