Not only is Matt Poitras precocious as a hockey player, he has displayed an even-keeled maturity for a 19-year-old kid.

But it might be hard for the Bruins rookie not to be wowed by the moment on Saturday night when he goes back to his native Toronto area to play the Maple Leafs in his first foray into Scotiabank Arena.

Poitras’ smile was pretty wide when he was talking about his homecoming at Warrior Ice Arena before heading out for the flight.

“It’s pretty surreal just to think last year during Christmas break, me and my Dad went to watch a game there and now I’m going to be playing there. It’s pretty crazy,” said Poitras on Friday.

“It’s going to be pretty cool to take it all in in warmup. But when the puck drops, I’ll just dial it in and play it like any other game.”

As confident as the young centerman is that he won’t be unnerved by the moment, coach Jim Montgomery is as well. Poitras is coming off one of his better games this year. He came up with the big steal and assist on Danton Heinen’s goal that finally got the B’s on the board early in the second period in the B’s 3-1 win over San Jose on Thursday. He was also involved in several other quality scoring chances.

Poitras is being asked to have an impact in games and, on most nights, he’s able to do that. His dogged pursuit of the puck has been noticeable from the start and his team-high 11 penalties drawn indicates it’s not that easy to get it away from him once he does get it. He’s got 5-6-11 totals in 22 games.

“To be honest, I don’t think he was ever distracted by the bight lights,” said Montgomery. “It’s a man’s league, it’s the best league in the world and here he is, doing a good job for us, helping us win hockey games. So I think there’s going to be moments where it’s going to be hard. And what we’re seeing is a player who has fought through the hard and is getting better.”

In Friday’s practice, Montgomery flipped Poitras and Charlie Coyle, with Coyle going between Brad Marchand and Heinen and Poitras taking over the line with Trent Frederic and James van Riemsdyk. Montgomery said it was done with the Toronto matchup in mind, as well as simply taking a look at different combos. Montgomery also looked at Poitras at the net front on the second power-play unit.

“Just trying a different look. He’s a real crafty player. With him being at the net front, he’ll move, and Charlie (Coyle) will be at the net front sometimes. It’s just something we want to work on because we haven’t worked on it before,” said Montgomery.

With Poitras’ playmaking abilities, it would seem natural that he gets a look on the elbow. He may at some point, but in due time. The elbows are the new quarterbacks of the power-plays and it can be challenging for young players with how quickly defenders close on you, said Montgomery.

“There’s a big learning curve with how to be a real good power-play player at the NHL level because everything happens so much quicker,” said Montgomery. “You don’t have as much time and I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve been. Young players who’ve had a lot of success, it’s hard to be a real good elbow player because you’ve got to direct the traffic. The power play runs through the elbow now. It used to be the power play ran through the guy up top, but if you look at all the good power plays, it’s (Nikita) Kucherov, it’s (Steven) Stamkos that are making the decisions. It’s (Leon) Draisaitl and (Connor) McDavid. It’s Marchand and (David) Pastrnak. It takes a while.”

The net-front is not unfamiliar territory to Poitras.

“Last year (in Guelph) I played a little bit of the net front on the power play and I think for me, I’m not a big guy. I’ll try to screen the goalie but I’m going to try and make some more skilled plays and get some touches,” said Poitras.

.Poitras was planning to go out to dinner with his family on Friday night. While he’d spent time with his father on the recent Dads’ trip, he was happy to be able to spend some more time with his mother. Montgomery wants him to drink in the whole experience.

“I think when a guy goes back home for the first time, you let him enjoy the excitement,” said Poitras. “Make sure that you’re getting your sleep but, besides that, if he’s going home to have Mom’s favorite meal, I think that’s great. You should spend time with your family and it’ special what he’s doing Saturday night. Embrace the moment and make sure he’s thinking about his process that makes him individually successful that makes our team successful.”

While he may have grown up a Leafs’ fan, he wasn’t about to buy a slew of the notoriously tough tickets, showing another side of his maturity – fiscal restraint.

“Tickets are real expensive. I looked into it, but, yeah, it’s real expensive,” said Poitras with a shake of the head. “I’m lucky my family members were able to get tickets earlier on.”….

The B’s will be playing the Leafs for the first time since Marchand and Toronto defenseman Timothy Liljegren were involved in a high speed puck pursuit, with Liljegren taking a nasty fall into the end boards and suffering a long-term leg injury. The Leafs and their fans saw something nefarious but the NHL did not.

How will the B’s deal with the potential revenge factor?

“Same way we did in Florida (when the Panthers went after Charlie McAvoy for his hit on Oliver Ekman-Larson),” said Montgomery. “We’re going to make sure we’re all in there together if anything does occur, but we’ve got a hockey game and we’re pretty close in the standings, two teams that are expected to be near the top of the division. So this is a big game going into Toronto on Saturday night. We’re focused on our task at hand.”…

The Leafs are in third place in the Atlantic,six points behind the B’s. But nothing has come easily for Toronto. Though the Leafs’ record is 12-6-3, they are tied for the fewest regulation wins in the league with five.