through just 2:13 of five-on-five ice time together<\/a>, Sturm said that he could feature that line again. <\/p>\n\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s my gut,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cBut to tell you the truth, I knew that was coming. I just didn\u2019t know it was that early. Could we see it again? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
A top-six promotion would be the latest leap for Minten over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n
A sound two-way game helped stamp his spot in the opening-night lineup after an encouraging preseason. But the Vancouver native saw his ice time fluctuate as the man in the middle of the third line. <\/p>\n
The expected growing pains that come with a player\u2019s first full season in the NHL manifested into a team-low 7:07 and 9:40 of ice time against the Panthers (Oct. 21) and Avalanche (Oct. 25), respectively. <\/p>\n
Minten had managed to dodge being a healthy scratch. But his game stalled, including an eight-game scoreless drought. <\/p>\n
For Sturm, Minten\u2019s struggles had more to do with the expected adjustments to the NHL, rather than a dip in confidence or poise. It\u2019s a hurdle only cleared with more reps. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had to learn how to play in this league,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cYes, he played some games last year, but he came out really, really hot, and then he kind of slowed down for a little bit. But I think he was just kind of processing everything. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on here? How do I have to play? When to go? When not? And now he slowly gets it. The way he has to play and on top of it \u2014 his speed, his motor, has been really, really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over his last five games, Minten has averaged more than 15 minutes of ice time, contributing one goal and three assists. <\/p>\n
After assisting on Khusnutdinov\u2019s overtime winner against the Sabres last Thursday, Minten found more success with the 23-year-old on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Beyond recording the primary helper on his linemate\u2019s equalizing goal, Minten logged a season-high 16:28 against the Islanders, while winning 50 percent of his faceoffs. His 2:27 of shorthanded ice time was third among Bruins forwards as the penalty kill went 3 for 3. <\/p>\n
And in that 2:13 of five-on-five ice time that Khusnutdinov-Minten-Pastrnak logged against the Islanders, the Bruins held a 6-2 edge in shot attempts, to go along with that tying goal.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen if that line will get more opportunities Thursday night against the Senators. But regardless of where he slots in, Minten feels as though he\u2019s starting to find his footing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always try to have fun,\u201d Minten said. \u201cI think it\u2019s good to have the pressure and stuff \u2014 and there always is. It\u2019s the NHL. There\u2019s millions of people who want your jobs, so there\u2019s always some. But I think the more you can just enjoy and play hockey, the better you\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Bruins tried to erase a one-goal deficit for the third time, Minten received a promotion to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[19859,385,99],"class_list":["post-275129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-bruins","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}