Jim Montgomery Explains Decision To Sit Johnny Beecher Vs. Maple Leafs

Johnny Beecher will have a different view than he has had all season on Saturday night when the Boston Bruins take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

Beecher, who has been a mainstay in Boston’s lineup centering the fourth line, received his first healthy scratch of the season from Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery.

While Beecher has injected the Bruins with youth and solid play, Montgomery believes the 22-year-old’s performance has dipped enough as of late to warrant a lineup change.

“We don’t feel like he’s been on top of his game like he was for several of the first 22 games,” Montgomery told reporters prior to the Original Six showdown, per team-provided video. “And we just want him to watch and learn and grow and get ready to go back in.”

Beecher hasn’t provided much scoring for the Bruins this season, not that they particularly ask him to contribute in that department. He has four goals — three of them have come in the last six games — and one assist.

Despite that scoring uptick, Montgomery obviously wants a different look to his fourth line and to give Beecher a breather during his first season in the NHL.

Montgomery decided to insert Oskar Steen into the lineup in place of Beecher while moving Morgan Geekie down to the fourth line to center Steen and Jakub Lauko.

Geekie missed nearly three weeks due to injury in November and has just one goal and one assist — both coming in last week’s matchup with the New York Rangers — while registering a minus-2 in the four games he has played since returning.

“I think he’s still finding his game. We’ve put him on the fourth line. He was on the third line playing more minutes,” Montgomery said. “We want him to be hard going to the nets like he was doing, hanging on to pucks and forechecking well.”

The Bruins and Maple Leafs drop the puck at 7 p.m. ET. Boston won the first meeting this season between the two sides in a shootout.