Lauko has been making his presence felt lately, playing like a confident puck hunter.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fourth liners often can get overlooked over the course of 60 minutes. They play fewer shifts and minutes than the top three lines.
Lately,
Jakub Lauko is making it hard to miss him.
The Bruins left winger has been making the best of his fourth-line twirls over the last week-plus, using his quickness and fearlessness to win loose-puck chases and create opportunities.
Lauko is rounding into the form he flashed last year after getting derailed earlier this season. On Oct. 24 in Chicago, Lauko suffered a facial fracture and a nasty gash across the bridge of his nose when he was hit by a skate blade.
He returned to the lineup two weeks later with a full cage and has continued to wear it.
“I’m feeling good,” Lauko said Monday, a small scar near his left eyebrow the only remaining evidence of the horrific incident.
Lauko has been making his presence felt lately, playing like a confident puck hunter.
“Yeah, I started the season slow and just a little stretch before the injury and right after the injury, I kind of didn’t have many looks, I just didn’t feel confident on the puck,” said Lauko, who didn’t factor into the scoring in
Monday night’s 5-2 loss to the Blue Jackets but had two assists over his previous three games. “I didn’t have much faith in my ability. So, the last few games I’m trying to be like, ‘OK, let’s forget about it and just try to play.’
“So, I think still there’s a lot of room for improvement, I’m not going to say there isn’t, but I feel a little bit better than I started the season and the first month, let’s say.”
Jim Montgomery has noticed an uptick in Lauko’s play.
“His speed, his ability to win foot races really, and win one-on-one battles,” said the coach, when asked what the second-year pro brings to his attack. “I think his game has really started to trend in the direction that we saw a lot of glimpses of last year and I think you can see he’s getting confident because he’s hanging onto pucks.”