BOSTON – It remains to be seen if it’s ever going to get rewarded, but the Bruins continue to put faith in Danton Heinen to eventually come through for them.
The Bruins second-year winger has struggled offensively this season with two goals in his last 20 games and six goals overall, and 13 points, in 49 games this season. It’s a far cry from last season when Heinen posted 16 goals and 47 points as an NHL rookie, and it’s not even close to the 10 goals and 21 points he’s slowly on pace for this season. Heinen had the game on his stick against the Flyers on Thursday night when David Krejci fed him a perfect pass in the slot late in the third period with time, space and plenty of vacant space to shoot on at the net.
Heinen couldn’t handle the puck and never a shot off with the score tied at 2 and the Bruins eventually lost a point in overtime. It’s not the first time this season that Heinen couldn’t come through in a clutch offensive spot for the Black and Gold, and really seems to indicate that Heinen is suffering through a major confidence crisis when it comes to his offense.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gave Heinen a vote of confidence following the loss, but the underachieving winger seems to be in the same boat as Ryan Donato and Anders Bjork as young B’s wingers who haven’t lived up to expectations this season.
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“He defends hard. He blocked a couple of big shots [against the Flyers]. We’re trying to use him on the kill a little more. Obviously, you’d like to see him bury that puck. It might’ve been the difference in the game,” said Cassidy. “He’s a guy with good, soft hands and it jumps over his stick. It’s hard to always go down the road of the ‘what ifs’ of those situations. It’s more of what can you do at the other end to keep it out of your net when you’re not getting those.
“Danton’s going to keep playing hard for us, hopefully, the right way, and hopefully the scoring comes around. He put himself in a good spot and I think he started that battle by winning the puck and it didn’t cooperate with him in the end.”
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Based on Saturdday practice it looks like John Moore and Heinen would be the guys coming out of the lineup for the Sunday matinee vs. the Washington Capitals. Joakim Nordstrom-Trent Frederic-David Backes on the third line was the consistent combo.
Further complicating matters is that Heinen, 23, has played so many games the past three seasons that he would need to pass through waivers in order to go to the AHL for a full rebuild of his offensive game. So, the Bruins are in a spot where they need to play him and hope he rekindles last season’s game, and not risk losing a player for nothing that had pretty good trade value last summer before all these struggles.
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While it’s good that Heinen is playing a responsible two-way game, the Bruins are in dire need of secondary offense right now while far too reliant on their top line and top power-play group to produce goals for them. Heinen is certainly part of the reason for that problem in the first place, and it doesn’t feel like hoping is going to lift him out of his offensive funk.
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