In the corporate world as an employee, it is vitally important to meet the expectations set out by your bosses. Doing so will not only strengthen your current job security, but will also ensure the possibility of moving up the organizational ladder in the future.
In the hockey world, it’s much the same. If you are Travis Boyd, the Hershey Bears’ sensational centerman who last year surpassed what was expected of him by his immediate supervisor, Bears’ bench boss Troy Mann, your future in the organization, in this case the Washington Capitals, is boundless.
“You just never know what these young kids are going to bring to the table,” said Mann of Boyd, a 6th round pick of the Caps in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. “He was a later round pick, and when you’re putting together a lineup during the summer and knowing who’s turning pro, you’re not sure. Can he be a fourth line guy, can he be a fill-in to start the year? Does he have to start the year in the ECHL? Those are all questions you ask. He got better and better as the year went on, and at the end of the day, he was probably our number one center down the stretch and in the playoffs. He certainly exceeded my and the organization’s expectations.”
Before coming to the Bears last season, Boyd played four seasons at the University of Minnesota where he was a business and marketing education major. He missed only seven games, all in succession, as the result of a broken foot in his final three seasons with the Golden Gophers.
“Being in the lineup every night is something I definitely take pride in. It’s just part of being a professional, making sure you’re ready for each game and making sure you perform to the best of your capabilities. Whether you’re 80% or 100%, you still have to find a way to go out there and give all you’ve got to help the team get a win,” said Boyd at the all-star break last season.
While it’s anybody’s guess as to what the expectations of Mann and the Capitals actually were going into last season, if one had to guess, it’s a safe bet that one of them was that he would be in the lineup every night. Boyd didn’t disappoint. He appeared in all 97 Bears’ games last season, and was the only player on the club to accomplish that impressive feat in spite of one particular, painful period in which anyone other than a hockey player probably would have taken a day or more off from their job.
“The toughest thing was when I broke my jaw in a Thursday morning practice, and we had a game Friday night in Rochester. I ended up getting a lot of dental work done, and then I hopped on a flight Friday morning and ended up playing three straight games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That was definitely the time where it was the most questionable that I’d be in the lineup. Sometimes, you get into the dog days of the season in January and February where it’s tough getting up for practices and games, but at the end of the day, it’s your job and that’s how to be a good pro,” said Boyd.
Watching Boyd perform and perfect his craft over the last three seasons-- two at the University of Minnesota and last year in Chocolatetown--one word comes to mind more than any other, and that is consistency, with the stats doing the talking for the 23-year-old native of Edina, Minnesota.
In his final two seasons with the Golden Gophers, Boyd was a point-per-game player; in fact he was precisely a point-per-game performer. He posted 73 points on 28 goals and 45 assists in 73 outings, and that offensive output didn’t come at the expense of his defensive game, as he posted those solid numbers while also managing to stay on the plus side of the ledger in the plus/minus category.
Last season with the Bears, despite the transition and “weighty” challenge of going from the college game where the game schedule is much lighter, and the players are as well, to the pro game, where the schedule and players are much heavier, the consistency continued for the 5’11” 191 -pound Boyd.
“There are so many big, strong, experienced men in the American League, which is obviously a big and drastic difference from the guys you play against in college,” Boyd said at the Capitals’ Development Camp in July.
He led the club’s rookies in game-winning goals, finished second in assists to only Chris Bourque, the league’s leading scorer and Most Valuable Player, tied for second along with fellow rookie Riley Barber in power-play goals and power-play assists, finished behind only Bourque and Barber in goals, and finished on the plus side with a plus-6 rating in addition to winning the Kenny Smith Memorial Award for most “Player of the Game” nominations.
In addition to the consistency, there were some “streaky stretches”, but they were all good streaks. There was one three-game-goal scoring streak, a stretch of 24 games in the second half of the season where he registered at least a point in 19 of those contests and collected 25 points during the run on 13 goals and 12 helpers. Again, all of this offensive output was not put up at the expense of his defense, as evidenced by the fact that he finished the season with a plus-6 rating, and was a season “high” minus-2 on only two occasions, but finished with a plus or even rating in 58 games.
Establishing a new career high in goals (21), assists (32), and points (53), last season, eclipsing his previous high of 19, 22, and 41 in the respective categories while a Gopher, Boyd funneled most of his offensive wrath toward the Phantoms, the Bears’ Keystone State neighbors. Against the Phantoms, the club he played his first professional game against and scored his first professional goal against at the end of the 2104-15 season, he found his name on the scoresheet in 10-of-12 contests, notching eight goals, including his first professional hat trick, and six assists.
The onset of the 2016 playoffs meant that Boyd, as well as a host of his fellow rookie teammates, would be experiencing playoff hockey for the first time in their careers. As anyone who has ever witnessed professional playoff hockey, whether a fan, media member, or player can surely attest that the post-season intensity and physicality is unlike any other sport with the physical and mental toll that the players endure.
In the regular season, a mistake may lead to a conversation with the coach, possibly a benching for a shift or two, or in extreme cases a seat in the press box for a spell, and then you shake it off and move on in the schedule. In the playoffs, with the weak links or eliminated teams already on the golf course and the pressure rising to a new high, each shift carries the potential of your club gaining momentum if it’s a positive one, or changing the tide of the series if it’s a bad one.
“For a lot of those guys (rookies), it was eye-opening, the caliber of play in the playoffs and how it’s not easy to score,” said Mann recently.
In the playoffs, Boyd found out firsthand just how true his coach’s words were as he was able to find the back of the net twice in 21 games, but both of his goals proved to be big ones.
The Portland Pirates, against whom he scored his first point of the regular season by assisting on a Barber goal, were first up on the Bears’ playoff docket. In the series opener, despite Boyd’s two assists, the Bears suffered their first setback of the postseason. The Bears prevailed in game two in Portland, but when the series shifted back to Giant Center for game three, they suffered a devastating defeat in triple overtime and faced elimination in game four. Midway through the first period in game four, Boyd struck for his first professional playoff goal, and the marker proved to be the game-winning goal as the Bears staved off elimination and eventually plundered the Pirates to move on.
Next up for the Bears was their bitter I-81 rivals, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who were the unfortunate victims of Boyd’s first professional game-winning goal in the regular season. After being held off the scoresheet in the first four games of the series, Boyd collected an assist in each of the next two games, and the series was tied at three, with a pivotal game seven set for Giant Center.
In game seven, a victor could not be established after sixty minutes of play, and the teams headed into overtime locked in a 2-2 stalemate.
Midway through the first overtime, the baby Pens were reeling after a couple of consecutive icing calls during which they were forbidden to make any changes to the personnel they had on the ice. The Bears were presented a faceoff in the WBS defensive zone, with Boyd taking, and winning the draw against the veteran Dustin Jeffrey.
After Boyd’s win in the dot, each of the other four Bears on the ice, forwards Dustin Gazley and Liam O’Brien, and defensemen Madison Bowen and Ryan Stanton, each touched the puck before Boyd gathered in a pass from O’Brien in the far corner, to the left of WBS goalie, Casey DeSmith. Once again, Boyd outdueled Jeffrey and escaped his attempted check with a quick spin move, after which he proceeded behind the WBS net, ultimately finding himself with the puck still in his possession to right of DeSmith along the goal line.
Now faced with the options of cycling the puck back behind the net to a teammate, sending a pass back to Bowey at the point, or launching a shot on net from the bottom of the faceoff circle, Boyd selected option “C” and sailed a shot over the left shoulder of DeSmith, sending the Giant Center crowd into a celebratory frenzy and forever etching his name into the history books as one of the few players in the Bears’ storied history to score the game-winning goal in a series finale in overtime fashion.
“He has a lot of composure with the puck, and he gained a lot of confidence in his ability to make plays during the season. I think that was one of his strengths, to not only find people, but to make the right decision at the right time in terms of using a linemate to make a play or do it himself to take the opportunity to score,” said Man. “He became a very good player beating guys one on one in the corner, and that goal exemplified that ability, beating a great player out of the corner, and having the poise to make the decision to throw it on net.”
Speaking at the Caps’ Development Camp nearly two months after the goal, Boyd still lit up like the goal light that signified his historic goal.
“It still brings a smile to my face, and I still have the memory pretty fresh in my mind. It’s the biggest goal I scored all season, and probably the biggest goal I’ve ever scored. It was so surreal to score a series-winning goal, especially in overtime in Game Seven.”
In the world of hockey, last year’s memories, whether they be dim, or as in Boyd’s case, bright, are just that--memories, and a new season brings new challenges. Mann, who has seen his share of rookies shine over the many years he has been involved in the game, first as a player and now as a coach, has a keen understanding on what his young charge needs to do to reach the goal of both himself and the organization, regular employment in the National Hockey League, and a couple of the words he uses are “C” words--consistency and confidence--two words that fit Boyd to a capital-T.
“I think like any young player, it’s consistency he needs, playing at both ends of the rink, making smart puck decisions and puck management. Sometimes when they come off a successful rookie season, they come in with a lot of confidence and believe they can do more. Sometimes less is more. You just have to stay composed in terms of the game and not try to overdo it in terms of puck handling and maybe trying to make the extra play. You still have to play the right way. We want players like him coming off their rookie season, to have confidence in their ability to perform at the AHL level, but we also want them to play the right way because they still have room to improve in a lot of areas if they want to ultimately get to Washington.”
