BOSTON — While most players on any given team come from far and wide, a number of players on the current Bruins team have Boston-area connections.
Matt Grzelcyk, who has been dubbed “the mayor of Charlestown” by Torey Krug, is one of them. The defenseman played a key role in the B’s Game 2 win, netting two of the team’s six goals Sunday afternoon.
Despite the success, Grzelcyk was pretty humble about his Game 2 accomplishments.
“I think, again, it was kind of the importance of taking advantage of home ice and we came out ready to go and that’s been a strength of our team throughout the playoffs. … Obviously, we wanted a full 60-minute effort, and I thought we played really well in the second period as well. We kind of just didn’t allow them to get momentum as Torey (Krug) alluded to, and we were just able to play a pretty strong 60-minute game and we’re going to need a good effort in Game 3.”
Krug said it was fun to watch his friend succeed Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a lot of fun to watch him play and when he’s skating there is no one that can skate like him and break out pucks and we take a lot of pride in that so it was fun to watch he scoot around today.”
Grzelcyk isn’t the only Boston player with local connections; Charlie Coyle hails from Weymouth, while Chris Wagner is a Walpole native. Coyle had his own stellar performance earlier in the postseason, scoring two goals in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Charlie McAvoy, who played collegiately at Boston University with Grzelcyk, said having players with local connections succeed in the postseason only make winning sweeter.
“Yeah, it’s crazy. We have (Chris Wagner), (Charlie Coyle), and (Matt Grzelcyk) all local guys playing in the playoffs, Conference final, all of them are producing and playing great hockey right now. I’m sure they have a lot of family that comes to each game and friends and people that they grew up with. To play the way that they have been playing, they’ve been huge for us, to do it at home in front of everybody I’m sure is a lot more special.”
Boston’s local boys will have another chance to shine as the series heads to Raleigh, N.C. for Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-seven series.
