Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy moved Trent Frederic into the third line to give the group some more size.
And with the team needing a spark heading into the second game of a miniseries with the Philadelphia Flyers, Frederic provided just that. Ultimately, he helped Boston claim a dominant 6-1 win Saturday at TD Garden.
Frederic contributed one assist on the stat sheet, but did much more than that, drawing a pair of penalties to go along with it. Of the Bruins' four power-play goals, two came from penalties drawn by Frederic.
With Frederic's promising upside as a penalty instigator and apparent chemistry with linemates Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith, all signs suggest the 22-year-old soon becomes a fan favorite.
He's certainly feeling right at home in Boston.
"They make you feel really part of the team," Frederic said of his teammates during his postgame media availability. "It's nice, obviously, starting out in camp and spending all this time with these guys in the bubble. Them getting to know me and then myself getting to know everyone else, it's really nice. These are my close buddies now.
"Just like the experience you spend with people the more comfortable you are with them and that's kind of where I'm at with this group of guys and all the guys that have come in as well. I feel like we're a tight knit group."
Brad Marchand commented on Frederic's performance following the win, but stressed that Saturday night wasn't a one-time thing.
Allow us to remind you of that time in January of 2019, when he made quite the first impression throwing down his rookie debut against the Winnipeg Jets, landing a few haymakers on Brandon Tanev that dropped the left wing to the ice.
“He’s been great since the first game. He did a great job coming into camp," Marchand said of Frederic. "He’s been awesome. He’s not trying to do too much. He's playing hard, he's winning battles. He's always trying to stir stuff up and getting guys off their game. And he continued to get more and more comfortable with the pace, with the puck. He just seems to make the right play all the time."
Frederic certainly made the right play in the first and third periods, when Flyers' defenseman Mark Friedman twice was sent to the box -- first for hooking, then unsportsmanlike conduct against the young center.
Both one-man advantages saw the Bruins capitalize with goals.
"The abrasiveness, we welcome it," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said postgame. "It's one of the things we talked to him about. You don’t have to go out there and be a goof, but get to the net, finish your checks, be honorary, get to the net, piss some people off, whatever it needs to be. I think he's bought into all those things… Like I said, he did his part tonight, and more."
