BOSTON – It’s not exactly easy being a rookie defenseman in the middle of a playoff push in the second half of an NHL season.
The stakes are high, the intensity is off the charts and every mistake gets magnified under a microscope for first year players that are bound to make their share of them.
Zach Trotman got a taste of that pressure last season when he jumped into the Bruins lineup once Dougie Hamilton went down with a rib injury, but now he’s fully in battle mode skating as a top shutdown pairing with Zdeno Chara.
The 25-year-old has a goal and five points in 29 games this season with a plus-1 rating and is a regular in a key spot after serving as a healthy scratch for large chunks of the season’s first half. Now he’s riding a bit of the rookie roller coaster: Trotman wasn’t great in the home loss to the Leafs right out of the break, but took a good step forward in the win over Buffalo while showing battle and a little attitude.
It’s something that Trotman is clearly trying to straighten out and find a little more consistency while gaining his full comfort level in the best hockey league in the world.
“Last year was really good for me to up in that [late-season] environment, and to really get a feel for it. It’s exciting to get another chance at it. You have to go into every night like it’s a playoff game. Every game matters, and every point matters,” said Trotman. “The scheduling can help you, and it can hurt you [after a bad game]. When you get back at it quick then you can’t dwell on what happened the night before. I think that helps.
“I think what it’s about is getting into that mindset where everything is second nature, and you’re just playing. That’s the main focus. When you’re not thinking and you’re just playing, it makes a big difference. Because things happen quick [at this level] and being in that mode really helps minimize mistakes.”
Boston Bruins
It was Trotman’s big hit on Johan Larsson in Buffalo that had Claude Julien remarking on the young blueliner’s game and hoping to see more of that down the stretch for the Black and Gold.
“I thought that [Chara/Trotman] pair was really good for us [against Buffalo],” said Julien. “Zee was really good at both ends of the ice. I know he broke up a couple of plays that could have been dangerous in our end, and he had a couple of shots on net, and that he kept the puck in the offensive zone. For what we expect from Zee, I thought he played well.
“To me I thought Trotman had one of his better games in all areas. I thought he was skating and moving the puck well. He threw some hits and he was playing really hard. So that pair was probably one of our best pairs. As long as they play that way, you’d hate to break them up, but the future will tell whether they stay together or not.”
There’s no telling how long Trotman will hold onto that top pairing spot while Don Sweeney and the Bruins scour the trade market for a defenseman, but he clearly has a big say in the matter as well.
It’s a matter of Trotman keeping that intensity high, continuing to build that ultimate comfort and confidence level and playing up to the ideal 6-foot-3, 220-pound size he brings to the ice as a big, strong rookie D-man.