By: Jason Cooke | Follow me on X @cookejournalism
Last season, Morgan Geekie was one of the Boston Bruins’ biggest surprises. But in 2024-25, he’s been one of their most glaring shortcomings. After his career-best campaign in 2023-24 that saw him produce 39 points, the 26-year-old forward hasn’t exactly found his stride this fall. In eight games, he’s mustered just one assist while being a minus-4.
The good news for Geekie is he isn’t alone in his situation. Pavel Zacha (three points), Matt Poitras (three points), and Charlie Coyle (one point) round out a slew of Bruins who haven’t hit the ground running on the dawn of a new season of Bruins hockey. And as a result, the Bruins have struggled. Their 4-4-1 record isn’t awful on paper, but even their most recent overtime triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs left some of Boston’s issues leaking through the victory.
Geekie’s play has seemingly summed up the Bruins’ woes that have been plaguing them so far this season. Defensive lapses, inability to control pucks, and at times, a lack of compete level have been the makings of his game thus far. And Jim Montgomery has floated Geekie around the lineup in an effort to get his struggling forward going, but ultimately to no avail. He simply told reporters after practice on Monday that he needs to “play better.”
Well, that’s kind of vague. So what exactly does Boston’s more relied-upon forwards need to do to break out of this rut? It may start with a simple confidence booster. When asked about what led to his success last season with the club, Geekie talked a lot about how a sense of security within his role on the depth chart enabled him to focus on improving his games. He didn’t move around the lineup much last season, playing the majority of the year in a third-line role alongside Trent Frederic.
So, it’s safe to say Montgomery’s line-swapping this season isn’t exactly helping Geekie hone in on his game. During Tuesday’s morning skate ahead of Boston’s matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers, Geekie played right wing next to Frederic and Matt Poitras on the third line. But he’s been just about everywhere this season, including on the second line with Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle. He was even a healthy scratch.
To Montgomery’s defense, that’s usually what you do with a player who is struggling to generate a spark. After moving him around the lineup, benching Geekie was likely Montgomery sending a message to hopefully light a fire in his overall game. But, that hasn’t seemed to work the way he projected it to.
Right now, the best thing for Geekie is to establish a concrete line that he is comfortable playing with. That’s obviously easier said than done, as the Bruins’ entire lineup seems to be stuck in that boat, but as soon as Geekie sees one go in the net, I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2017 fifth-round draft pick starts to find the missing pieces to his game.
Because in all honesty, Geekie probably isn’t a top-six player. He certainly had the promise to don that role after his successful season last year in this debut campaign in Boston, but that second-line wing slot seems to be disjointing the entire lineup as a whole. Once the Bruins can lock down that spot, I think everything will start to fall into place. When that happens, players like Geekie will be able to sit comfortably into his designated line and be the player he was in 2023-24.
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