BOSTON — Joey Daccord took a moment to glance around before the game began.
The Seattle Kraken goaltender considered sitting in TD Garden’s upper bowl for Game 6 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. He switched his gaze across the building, pausing at various locations where he had sat as a child rooting for the Bruins while growing up in North Andover.
“I picked out all of the different places I sat,” he remarked, beaming. “A lot of special moments.”
The 27-year-old rookie had never played in the Garden before, and at some point along his winding path to the NHL, he must have wondered if he ever would.
Junior hockey took him to Wisconsin and college to Arizona State where he was a seventh-round pick of the Senators in 2015. He played one game for Ottawa in 2018-19 and eight more in 2020-21 before joining the expansion Kraken in 2021-22.
He played five games that year and five more last year spending most of his time riding buses through out-of-the-way AHL towns like Bellville, Charlotte and Coachella Valley.
But this year he made the Kraken and has been better in the NHL than in any season he played in the minors. Daccord came into Thursday’s game with a 15-11-9 record. His 2.36 goals-against average was sixth in the NHL and his .921 save percentage was fourth.
Thursday was a great night in the middle of that good season. He made 36 stops to steal a win against a good Bruins team who outshot the Kraken, 38-26 and earned No. 1 star status. He disappointed a lot of the fans he used to sit among, but the sellout crowd wasn’t all disappointed. He gave out 13 comps but had almost 40 people on his postgame guest list as lots of family and old friends bought their own tickets and were in the Garden to witness his special moment.
“It was a really special night. I’m just trying to put everything into perspective. I grew up through-and-through a Boston sports fan,” said the native of Dunkin’ country playing in Starbucksland. “It’s been a long road. I’m obviously pretty old for a rookie. My first time playing in the Garden couldn’t have been more special. … It was a surreal moment for me. It definitely made me feel like a little kid.”
Hingham native and fellow former Bruins fan Matty Beniers enjoyed seeing his teammate have his moment.
“He was unreal making huge saves as he has been every night that he’s been between the pipes. He’s been great,” said Beniers, who had a goal and two assists in front of his own contingent for friends and family. “I know he was super excited about it. Boston kids love coming home to Boston. I know he was pumped up and I was pumped up. It was fun to get the win.”
As Daccord skated off the ice, he looked into the crowd and saw familiar faces.
“I was able to look up and see my family,” he said. “That was really special.”
Years from now, after his career is over he’ll be able to come back to the Garden and look around again. He can look up to see where he sat for all of those games. But then he can look down to the ice and know, that’s where he stopped David Pastrnak (six times) and that’s where he turned back Brad Marchand twice on a night when he was dominant against the Bruins.
“It was a really special night and pretty emotional for me,” Daccord said. “Playing in the NHL is one thing. Playing against the Bruins is really special. I’ll never forget tonight.”
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