Bruins Pay Tribute To Matt Grzelcyk In Return To Face Boston

BOSTON — The Bruins in the last three weeks honored Linus Ullmark and Jake DeBrusk in their respective returns to Boston with tribute videos.

It was Matt Grzelcyk’s turn to get one Friday.

Grzelcyk faced his former team for the first team since signing a one-year, $2.75 million deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins this past offseason. The 5-foot-10 defenseman spent the first eight seasons of his NHL career with the Bruins and amassed 25 goals and 110 assists for 135 points in 445 regular-season games over that span.

The Bruins played the highlights of Grzelcyk’s tenure with the Bruins midway through the first period and the Charlestown, Mass., native received a strong ovation from the fans in attendance at TD Garden. Grzelcyk saluted the crowd and tapped his chest in response from the Penguins bench.

You can watch the tribute video for Grzelcyk here.

Grzelcyk isn’t off to the best of starts with the Penguins. He entered the matchup against Boston with no goals and eight assists in 24 games while owning a minus-12 rating.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, who reflected on his own tenure with the Bruins prior the game, likes what Grzelcyk brought to his team.

“One of the things that attracted us to (Grzelcyk) was his puck-moving ability,” Sullivan said. “He passes the puck extremely well. He has the ability to get back to pucks. Helps out on the breakout. He can change the point of attack. He’s very good on the offensive blue line. He plays on one of our power plays, distributes it pretty well when he’s on the power play. That I think is probably Grzelcyk’s biggest strength and that was an area where we felt like we needed some help and he certainly helped us in that regard.”