It sure must have felt like a long time coming for Morgan Geekie after answering a lot of questions in the last week or two about scoring just one goal in his first 14 games of the season.
He wasn’t shooting enough, he wasn’t hitting the net enough, and a myriad of other reasons were behind it, according to everybody with an opinion about it. But the bottom line is that the Bruins forward’s goal-scoring woes were amplified after the B’s lost back-to-back road games in Carolina and St. Louis while struggling to score enough to get over the hump.
When a player like Geekie, with back-to-back 30-goal seasons on his resume, is scuffling to find the shooting range amidst the losses, it begins to wear on the struggling shooter. And it looked like that would be the case again on Saturday, when the Bruins trailed a woeful Blackhawks team in the final seconds of their Halloween matinee game.
But Geekie changed all that when he slammed home a game-tying one-timer with 11 seconds left in regulation, pushing things into overtime before the Bruins took home a 5-4 OT win at TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.
MORGAN GEEKIE TIES IT FOR THE BRUINS WITH 10 SECONDS LEFT 🫨🚨 https://t.co/PY9DIRYd7F
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 31, 2026
“Very happy for him. Hopefully that helps him moving forward,” said Marco Sturm. “He had some opportunities and he hit the post in the first [period], but he definitely hit that rocket in the third to tie it up. Hopefully that relaxes him a bit and there are more [goals] coming.”
The shot was a thing of beauty and capped off a strong game where Geekie had three shots on net and eight shot attempts in 16:23 of ice time after barely averaging a shot per game over the course of this season.
“It was huge. It means a little extra knowing that we won the game, and we got that extra point,” said Geekie, with a genuinely relaxed look on his face. “It was good to see it go [in] and hopefully you get a few more opportunities to see [shots] fall.”
It was clear seeing Geekie get mobbed after the goal by his teammates that they had been waiting for that kind of moment as well.
Geekie hit a post earlier in the game, as Sturm referenced, after hitting posts in the last couple of games as well, but he just kept on shooting until the perfect scoring chance arrived with the goalie pulled and the B’s frantically looking for a score.
“We rely on everybody and when you tie it that late it’s obviously really exciting,” said Pastrnak. “For [Geekie] it’s a big goal and a great shot, so we were all excited. It was a long shift, but we were able to get it done 6-on-5 so it was exciting and credit to him.”
The Bruins may be relying a little more on Geekie in the short term if he can catapult Saturday’s heroics into one of his patented scoring sprees and begin shooting the puck more as he did in victory.
ONE TIMERS
*Pastrnak leads the Bruins with his eight goals in 15 games this season, and he connected with Pavel Zacha for a breakaway goal in Saturday’s win that initially got the B’s on the scoreboard.
PASTA MAKES NO MISTAKE ON THE BREAKAWAY‼️ That's goal No. 428 of his career, moving him into sole possession of third all-time in @NHLBruins history! https://t.co/APHwMdN9vv
— NHL (@NHL) October 31, 2026
The score also vaulted No. 88 to third on Boston’s all-time goals list with 428 for his career, passing the legendary Patrice Bergeron, with only Johnny Bucyk and Phil Esposito still ahead of him.
“[Patrice] is obviously a legend and an unbelievable player. He’s having his [Hall of Fame] night in a couple of weeks, so I’m honored and blessed. I’m very humbled,” said Pastrnak. “He’s my friend. He’s one of the reasons that I’m passing him [on the all-time list] too because he was a big part of it. I’m blessed to play with him and to learn from him and know him.”
There will certainly be a lot of walking down memory lane with the Perfection Line over the next week with Patrice Bergeron’s Hall of Fame induction coming up, and his number retirement happening at TD Garden at the beginning of December. But all the chatter was about Pastrnak on Saturday afternoon after scoring the historic goal in a career that should ultimately see him as the greatest goalscorer in Bruins history.
*It was inevitable that the baton was going to be passed from longtime Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs to his son Charlie at some point, and that was the case this past week as Charlie was named by his father as the Bruins representative governor with the NHL Board of Governors after Jeremy’s 51-year run in that role. Charlie Jacobs represented the Bruins as an Alternate Governor on the NHL Board of Governors for 26 years and will continue to serve in his role as CEO of the Boston Bruins and Delaware North, sharing the Delaware North leadership role with his brothers, Jerry Jacobs Jr. and Lou Jacobs.
Don’t expect much to change at all as Charlie has been the on-the-ground owner presence in Boston for almost 30 years, and the Bruins franchise has been one of the model franchises around the NHL during that time.
“Jeremy Jacobs’ dedication to the Bruins, the League, and the Boston community has been remarkable, and his leadership has left a lasting mark on our sport,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “After more than two decades as an Alternate Governor, Charlie is superbly prepared for this moment, and fans can be confident about the Bruins prospects under his leadership.”
*Excellent lineup usage by Marco Sturm as he inserted Sean Kuraly and Jonathan Aspirot for Saturday afternoon’s win over the Blackhawks and got solid performances from both veteran players after they’d been sitting in favor of younger players Frederic Brunet and Matt Poitras over the last few weeks. Kuraly had a couple of hits and a couple of shot attempts while winning 4-of-5 faceoffs in 8:45 of ice time and also chipped in with some time on the penalty kill. Aspirot was okay in a third pairing with Mason Lohrei in 13:28 of ice time but clearly had a little bit of rust as he really hasn’t played a lot as of late with just five games this season.
“It is more about that we are very fortunate to be very healthy this year. We have everyone available. I think these guys who were not playing for a while, they did a tremendous job,” said Marco Sturm. “We need everyone on this team, and the last time they played in LA, they did a terrific job.
“It’s more about that than anything else…keeping everyone on their toes, and also, they deserve to be in the lineup, too, and get a chance. It is more about them than anybody else.”
*Shout out to Morgan Geekie and Will Brogen for some deep cut Halloween costumes as they dressed as a pair of characters from the Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys. That is a true Canadian deep cut, but somebody missed an opportunity to dress up as Bubbles along with the boys.
Morgan Geekie being one of the Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian deep cut
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 26, 2026
That’s it for this week, we’ll see everybody at the rink!