New Bruins Winger Hathaway Switched Teams But Not Role

Note: Thank you to reader and Twitter friend Jenn Passero (@osRavensCaps), for alerting this scribe to that fight above. 

That fight however manifested from a headshot that Hathaway’s former Capitals teammate, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, laid a blind-side headshot on Lightning defenseman Cal Foote. On Saturday, his second fight with Maroon this season was the result of Maroon and his team wanting to set a tempo and snap out of the recent funk they’ve been in. As he was back in November, Hathaway was ready to be there for his new teammates and once he saw his – to this point – regular linemate Jakub Lauko wrestling Lightning forward Ross Colton, Hathaway entered the fray.

“You know how it is, the road team picks the line first, and we’ve started a lot of games at home lately,” Hathaway told Boston Hockey Now after his team’s game-day skate Tuesday morning ahead of their tilt with the Nashville Predators at TD Garden on Tuesday night. So we matched up and I saw him switch wings. Usually that’s a good indication that he wants to talk or say something. We chatted for a second and the refs came in really quickly; I don’t know what they talked about, I spoke to the other ref a little bit.

I watched the replay a couple times and it looked like we lost the draw, and it went back to their D pretty fast, and my job that game was to get on that defenseman. So I separated from [Maroon] pretty quickly. So I didn’t think anything after that was going to happen, and obviously I saw ‘Lauks’ [Lauko], and what was happening with them and then it was on.”

Hathaway completely understood the position of the Lightning and was happy to oblige Maroon.

“I think it was more of what’s been happening with them as a team,” he said. “There team has been pretty set with where they are in the standings for awhile now, and they’re wanting to lead up and play their best hockey leading into the playoffs, like every team is trying to do, and they had lost three in a row coming into our building. As we would be too, they were trying to change that energy; trying to create momentum, and Maroon has been doing that for a long time in this league so there was no surprise from our side. We were ready for that.”

Garnet Hathaway has three goals and two assists in 16 games with the Boston Bruins so far, but it’s been his seamless assimilation into the lineup that’s been most impressive. He has done his best to be whatever type of player the Bruins need, and thankfully his customary gritty, two-way game, has fit right in with what Lauko and center Tomas Nosek.

Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery and his staff have been incredibly impressed with Hathaway so far.

“I think he embodies the ‘Big, Bad Bruins'” Montgomery said on Tuesday morning. “I was just talking to him after the morning skate about how much we as a staff appreciate what he does, game in and game out. I think he’s very underrated as a hockey player. He plays the game in all three zones. His understanding of game management and his surroundings and approach, he’s just a great add.”

That’s been Hathaway’s goal since he arrived.

“There’s a lot of things that go into that role and I try to do more than that,” Hathaway said. “It’s a part of my game though and after I was traded here, I’ve been trying take on a role to compliment the guys in this room and I take a lot of pride in it. So, you want to come into a team that traded for you and make a difference and continue to help a team be successful, and that was my way of doing it.

I think we’re all pretty different players that compliment each other pretty well. So, I think that’s where you see chemistry building, and a lot of the lines aren’t made up of the same type of guys, most of the best lines aren’t. Finding your role as an individual on a line is part you creating it and part adapting. That’s what will build other guys knowing where you’re going to be, starting to read your tendencies and getting more familiar with each other. It’s been great so far.”

Unfortunately, Lauko won’t be in the Boston Bruins lineup on Tuesday night as he’s out with an upper-body injury. Oskar Steen will take his place, and chances are, Hathaway will click with him too.