Bruins fans love to love players like Chris Wagner.
He’s a hard-nosed player who “hits everything that moves,” as head coach Bruce Cassidy put it after a first glance at the 27-year-old forward during training camp, making him the perfect player to jump in alongside Noel Acciari on a fourth line that has been a key to the team’s success and ultimate postseason runs in recent seasons.
Wagner’s addition to the club on a two-year, $2.5 million contract this offseason is made even sweeter by the fact that he has deep local roots, calling Walpole, Mass., home.
“It’s been cool to see how much support I’ve gotten from the people around here, but you’ve got to back up the opportunity,” said Wagner, who hadn’t had the luxury of moving into an apartment that his mother set up — which happened while he was on the overseas traveling squad for the O.R.G. China Games in September — over the first four seasons of his NHL career. Before returning home to join the Bruins, his 174 career games were played with the Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders.
“Just being able to go home instead of making the call from six hours away (is awesome),” he said. “The family’s definitely a big part, so that’s probably the coolest thing.”
It’s all business now that the new season is under way.
Being the hometown kid doesn’t guarantee anything on this club filled with young stars, so making a good impression was key right from the start. He was quickly rewarded with a goal in the Oct. 8 home-opening win over Ottawa, deflecting former Boston University star defenseman Charlie McAvoy’s point shot past a fellow Bay Stater in the Senators’ Mike Condon.
Wagner was scratched from the lineup in Buffalo a night after Boston’s 7-0 loss to defending Stanley Cup champion Washington in the Oct. 3 season opener. The “surreal moment” of his first goal as a Bruin came in the game immediately following.
“You don’t like to watch and it’s never an easy pill to swallow, so obviously you’re not going to be happy about it, but you kind of use it as motivation to play well,” Wagner said after his first regular-season game as a Bruin at TD Garden. “You have to trust the process (because) it worked out.”
As important as Wagner making a good impression on his new team, Cassidy and general manager Don Sweeney was finding chemistry on a line at season’s beginning.
Luckily though, Wagner had some long-developed chemistry with Acciari from their days together on the region’s youth scene. The Johnston, R.I., native and former Providence College captain, too, was in need of at least one new winger for his hard-working trio after New Hampshire native Tim Schaller signed with the Vancouver Canucks this offseason.
Wagner and Acciari had yet to crack double-digits in age or been legally allowed to hit when they first met as teammates on the South Shore Kings. As their first season together in Boston continues to unfold, Wagner sees little having changed from the point they first embraced the physical role that they now play in the NHL.
“It’s definitely come full circle for us,” Wagner said of reaching the sport’s highest level along with Acciari. New York Rangers forward Kevin Hayes (Dorchester, Mass.) was also a linemate of theirs at that point. “We’ve known each other since we were nine years old and he was driving up from Providence to play in Walpole. I don’t think our games have really changed that much over, I guess, the last 20 years. We both kind of flew under the radar, too, so it’s cool that we’ve made it this far.”
Prior experience or not, Acciari saw a possible link that could help contribute to this Bruins team’s success right away in training camp.
“I’m easygoing and my game’s simple,” Acciari said. “I think we play a similar style of just getting the puck in, bang a body and get pucks to the net. There’s not much difference there, so I think we feed off each other.”
Joakim Nordstrom began the season as the left winger with the local duo, but the newcomer from Carolina moved up to the second line as the B’s looked to solidify things up top. Sophomore wingers Danton Heinen and Ryan Donato (Scituate, Mass.) were chief among those who struggled during early promotions, so Nordstrom provided another veteran presence and consistency to David Krejci’s line while returning Bruin Sean Kuraly joined Wagner and Acciari to round out the forward group.
Cassidy liked what he saw from the formed combination in the early going, and the secondary burst of offense they can provide — as they showed in prior seasons for their various NHL clubs — is a bonus. Wagner scored seven goals and established a career high with 16 points in 79 games at the NHL level (64 in Anaheim and 15 for the Islanders) a year ago.
“They all, I believe, could be 10-goal scorers,” Cassidy said of Wagner and the B’s fourth line. “If you can get that out of your fourth line and the responsibility and the gritty part of their game, then we’ll be in good shape. Last year, a big reason this team had some success and got through tough times was because our fourth line was very good.”
A fourth-liner’s role is one that Wagner knows can’t be taken for granted as it has, indeed, spurred some of the team’s recent success.
“You’re playing probably the least amount of time out of the four lines, so you have to make the most of your minutes and try to get that energy for the other guys when they’re on the penalty kill, drawing penalties, and stuff like that,” Wagner said, referring to the likes of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and other veterans in the room he has watched from afar for years.
“(Our role) definitely goes unnoticed sometimes, but we take it very seriously.”
Times and games do change, but offense has been part of Wagner’s game in the past. He was a gifted scorer as he advanced to the Eastern Junior Hockey League level, recording 54 goals and 117 points in just 82 games over two seasons with the Kings, then jumped to the pros after a 51-point sophomore season at Colgate University.
For his career successes, Wagner has coaches like the Kings’ Scott Harlow to thank. Harlow is now a full-time scout for the Edmonton Oilers, but he coached a slew of present-day NHL players — including Wagner’s junior teammate Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass.) of the Minnesota Wild — during his time with the Kings.
Harlow’s relationship with Wagner, though, is a bit different than some of the rest.
“I like seeing these kids progress through the different levels and what they bring to the table and knowing the fact — at least with Chris — that you had a little bit to do with it,” said Harlow. “But I don’t want to take anything away from Chris because he’s gotten there through sheer hard work.
“When I had him, I think it was just a mindset. He just needed someone to be honest with him about how good he was offensively. I still think he has more offense in him than he really shows, although he’s obviously at a much different level now. I saw something in him that a lot of people didn’t see with his offensive production, and he obviously did it.”
Wagner’s role is much less offensive today than it was when he shared the junior ice with Coyle, a former first-round, No. 28 overall pick who went on to play at Boston University for two seasons. But although the Bruins have acquired and developed so much youth and high-end skill over recent seasons, Wagner knows that the Hub’s hockey fans certainly can appreciate the role he plays. After all, he started as one himself.
“It’s an 82-game season and it’s tough some nights to go run around and hit, but being here and knowing the fans’ support makes it a little easier,” Wagner said. “When you do something small like block a shot or hit someone, they’re going to get fired up. I’ve seen that forever, since I was two or three years old.”
Harlow sees Wagner’s commitment to Colgate as another example of his former image on the local scene, but there’s no secret as to what got him to this point as a factor in Boston’s lineup now. His former coach still sees that hard work on display to this day when he works out and plays in Foxboro during the offseason.
And Harlow knows, too, that he could slot into a higher-end role if the opportunity presented itself or injuries left the Bruins with a hole to fill for a period of time.
“He is a ‘no fanfare’ type of kid and just goes to work every day,” Harlow said. “The work ethic is always going to be there with Chris. He doesn’t leave anything on the table. … He’s not the most talented player in the world, but the coaches he’s had in the past can all appreciate that he got every single thing out of his ability.
“I think he’s in a real good position right now, and I get a lot of thrill watching him play at this level. I think Chris is going to continue to be a good NHL player and play his role, whatever that is they want him to play, and I think he’s going to continue to surprise people.”
