A strong showing at the World Cup of Hockey was enough to get Christian Ehrhoff a tryout with the Boston Bruins. At the very least, he made quite an impression on Bruins coach Claude Julien during the tournament.
On Tuesday night in their preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens, he tried to make another statement that he can still provide something to help them. And given what has happened to their defense over the past couple of years, both in terms of age and established players leaving the team, they could certainly use an upgrade at the position.
Late in the first period he beat Montreal goalie Al Montoya with a perfectly placed, rocket of a slap shot just under the crossbar to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
Have a look (GIF via @MarcPDumont)
Ehrhoff scores for the Bruins. Bonus: Krejci went fishing for a Montoya, and was successful. pic.twitter.com/XFx1r6LU6d
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) October 5, 2016
Ehrhoff’s career has taken a sharp downward turn the past two seasons, mainly due to injury. After being bought out by Buffalo following the 2012-13 season, he signed a one-year contract with Pittsburgh that seemed to be a situation where he could have used to built up his value for another big contract the following season. But concussion issues cut his season in half and he really hasn’t been the same player since. He played in 48 games for the Kings and Blackhawks last season, scoring two goals.
If nothing else, Boston seems to be a great spot for him to try and earn a spot given the makeup of the defense entering camp. Once you get beyond Zdeno Chara (who is now another year older and another year closer to 40) and Torey Krug, there really isn’t anybody on the blue line that can provide any sort of a scoring threat from the blue line. Ehrhoff, in theory, could provide some of that.
And as he showed on that goal on Tuesday, he can still absolutely bring it when he has an opportunity to wind up and really step into a slap shot.