WILMINGTON, Mass. — Matt Bartkowski doesn't actually have a clause in his contract that states he can only play against the Penguins, but the Pittsburgh native certainly isn't complaining about possibly getting another chance to face his hometown club.
"Maybe for the rest of my career I'll just get called up to play Pittsburgh I guess," Bartkowski said after practice on Friday.
That followed an early-morning call delivering the good news that Bartkowski was coming back up to the big club. The rookie defenseman in his first pro season out of Ohio State made his NHL debut on Monday in Pittsburgh when Adam McQuaid was unable to play with an undisclosed injury, but was returned to Providence the following day when McQuaid was able to play against Ottawa.
But Bartkowski, 22, didn't stay in the AHL for long, as he was recalled on an emergency basis Friday after Andrew Ference suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia on Thursday.
"I didn't expect it at all," Bartkowski said. "I was just in the mindset that I'm going to be playing AHL games this weekend and then I got the call this morning and I was like, 'Aw, sweet.' To be back up this soon is great."
Ference is questionable for the Bruins' game on Saturday, which would give Bartkowski a chance to log his second game in the NHL. Naturally, next up on the schedule is a rematch with the Penguins.
"We kind of save him for those Pittsburgh games," Bruins coach Claude Julien joked. "So we sent him back down in between and bring him back."
Unlike his debut, when Bartkowski was thrown into action without any practice time with the big club, he was able to prepare for this game with a full workout with his new teammates on Friday.
"It's good for him to get a practice with our hockey club," Julien said. "I thought for his first game he handled himself well in Pittsburgh. [With him] getting more comfortable I think we'll see him get better and better as he plays with us."
Bartkowski played 9:53 on Monday, making one hit and getting called for hooking while finishing a minus-1. But he led the Bruins with four assists and was a plus-3 in four preseason games, and was the final cut on defense in camp after accompanying the team to Prague.
He's hoping to reach that kind of comfort level again with the big club, and getting a chance to practice with the veterans is a definite help.
"I'm a lot more comfortable, especially on the ice," said Bartkowski, who has 4-8-12 totals in 34 games in Providence. "It was good to get a practice in. It eased my nerves a lot just getting out there and getting more familiar with the guys."
Having gotten his true home debut out of the way in Pittsburgh, Bartkowski is now eager to play his first game in his new professional home in Boston.
"I'm pretty excited," Bartkowski said. "I've been waiting for this for a long time, to finally play a game in the Garden."
