It was far from a joyous atmosphere inside TD Garden on Thursday night with the Boston Bruins dropping their first home game of the season in regulation to the Seattle Kraken. And it didn't help matters that they got shut out, too.
But even that couldn't completely damper the spirits of 24-year-old Joona Koppanen, who made his Bruins debut after the organization called him up from Providence and sent down Chris Wagner.
"It was an awesome experience, of course," Koppanen told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "Been working hard for many years now and kind of like dream come true. It would be nice to win, of course, but the game is still the game, so it's nice to get that in."
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery slotted Koppanen in at center on the fourth line and was flanked by Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek. The Bruins promoted Koppanen mainly for his ability to take faceoffs, something Montgomery revealed Nosek is unable to do at the moment as he battles an injury.
And while Koppanen received just 8:50 of ice time and finished as a minus-one, he did contribute in the faceoff department by winning five of the seven draws he took.
But there still was an obvious learning curve Koppanen had to adjust to.
"I think the game is a little faster and you had to be ready to play with the puck," Koppanen said. "I think people score better here in this league than AHL."
Koppanen said his family was watching on TV in the middle of the night from their native Finland. And from that far away, it would have been hard to see any nerves Koppanen experienced.
But he admitted they were there before being able to shake them off.
"I think I was prepared well," Koppanen said. "Maybe I was a little nervous early. So took a little time to get a couple shifts in and was better after that."
