Matt Fraser claimed off waivers by Oilers

(Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)

by Dakota Antelman

Bruins forward Matt Fraser, who was placed on waivers following the team’s 6-2 loss to the Blue Jackets Saturday, was claimed by the Edmonton Oilers Monday morning. The signing ended his short tenure with the Bruins.

Fraser came to the Bruins back in 2013 in the ill-fated trade that sent Tyler Seguin to Dallas. Since the trade he has logged 38 starts with the NHL Bruins and spent 44 games with AHL Providence. In two seasons, he scored 5 times for Boston and 20 times for Providence. In between goals though, Fraser struggled to produce.

The team plugged him in on the fourth line where he unfortunately lacked physicality and struggled to win battles along the boards.

“I would have liked to have produce more but maybe that opportunity wasn’t there as much. I just had a conversation with [coach] Claude [Julien] and he has kind of alluded to that but at the same time you’re in the NHL for a reason, you’ve got to find a reason to stay here,” Fraser said. “It didn't happen here as I had planned but at the end of the day you’ve got to move on and realize that this is a job.”

Very simply, Fraser’s place in the NHL does not lie on the fourth line of any team. He is a front of the net scorer, not a win-your-own-battles kind of guy. As good as he may be, his individual playing style did not cohesively match that of the rest of the Bruins. Such is likely why they made little effort to retain him.

Fraser understands that and is not bitter.

“For whatever reason it didn't work out but that’s not going to make me think anything different of this organization or anything like that,” Fraser said. “I have nothing bad to say about this organization, about the guys or anything like that. That’s just part of the business.”

The Bruins at times gave Fraser first team looks, greatly increasing the body of game film teams have to look at of him in the future. Also, though it did not work out, Fraser’s competence on the fourth line helped him discover versatility within a system while the Bruins’ willingness to put him into playoff situations helped create some key moments in his career.

With that, Fraser moves to Edmonton with hopes of getting starting time within a team currently focused on rebuilding.

Fraser is excited to play again. He understands the fit in Boston was never there and he leaves cordial, satisfied and eager to live the promising career ahead of him.

“At the end of the day, I feel like I have the best job in the world,” Fraser said after Edmonton snapped him up. “I really do. Every day that I came to the rink, I never took it for granted. With that being said, take the rest of the day and understand that you’re going back home and you’re going to play for the Oilers. You’ve got to make the most of it.”

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Fraser's fairytale: Call-up scores OT winner for Bruins...ties series with Montreal

The goal itself was simple. It was scored Carl Soderberg dug the puck loose from the right pad of Carey Price, as big bodied Matt Fraser pushed past a pair of Canadians and as he fell to the ice, blindly whacked the puck through Price's five hole. But in all its grit and lack of finesse, the goal served as a whacky, cheesy, Hollywood ending to a game described by those same adjectives. 

Since the Bruins started their death-match second round series with Montreal back on the first day of May, they had made a habit of starting slow as through those 3 games, 8 of the team's 10 goals had been scored in the 3rd period of later. While that sure makes for some exciting 3rd period hockey, it also evolved into 2 losses in the first 3 games of the series with the only victory for Boston coming out of a game that held a one in a million 4 goal 3rd period.

A game like that was not going to happen again and so, as the Bruins went into the Bell Centre for Game Four, they did so knowing that they could not fall behind early in this game. If Game Four was a game to be won by the Bruins it was one that had to be won with decisiveness and execution. Among the biggest factors that had prevented that from happening in the first 3 games and would try to do the same in Game Four was PK Subban. 

Subban, a 4 year veteran of the league came into the series already known as a Bruins killer. He only solidified his reputation for dominating Bruins defenders in the first games of this 2014 series. After logging a goal in regulation as well as the double OT winner against the Bruins in Game One, PK would assist on 3 more goals and score another in games two and three playing a near reckless offensive minded defense. However, the Bruins were soft and never exploited the many times in the first 3 games where Subban was caught momentarily out of position after a reckless pinch or hard shot.

To stop him from getting into the offensive side of the game, Boston would have to send their forwards right at him as well as simply sky the puck out of their zone whenever Subban was able to get into a shooting position. Much of the Bruins game plan was tailored to the threat of PK Subban's shot.  

Their tailoring paid off. The Bruins limited Subban to just 2 shots in the game one of which was a lackluster roller Subban bounced in on Tuukka Rask from the half line. However in their obsession with eliminating Subban's role in the Canadians attack, the Bruins stymied their own attack. Though the game was very fluid in its gradual shifts in momentum as well as highly tactical moves made by the coaches on both teams, both teams focused on defense and body contact. Not many of the 68 shots taken in the game were taken from anywhere but the blue line or the boards. 

                                                                                       

However, what did happen almost constantly in this game was body contact...big body contact. In 61 minutes and 19 seconds of game play, the Bruins and Canadians launched 72 hits or an average of 1.2 hits per minute. From the first puck drop to the end of the game, every time a player whering any sweater of any sort crossed the blue line a player of the opposite team was there to cave in his rib cage. At one point in the 3rd period even, Canadians defender Douglass Murray delivered 3 hits in under 7 seconds of game play decking Carl Soderberg, Reily Smith and then Soderberg again in the Canadians corner. 

"We're working tough enough to get that next goal," Daniel Paille had told 98.5 The Sports Hub after the end of regulation. "What it's going to take is someone outbattling the other, so that has to be us." 

In the end it was the battle that won out. In the most magical of finishes, Matt Fraser poked in the OT winner that also served as his first goal as a Bruin and his first career playoff goal.

For the newest Bruin to step up, Thursday was one of the greatest days of his life.

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