George Richards, FHN Publisher
Dale Tallon brought Noel Acciari in to stabilize the Florida Panthers’ fourth line.
They certainly got a lot more than they bargained for when it came to Acciari.
Acciari made a name for himself in Boston as a fourth-line grinder, a player who, in his own words, would “do anything and everything you can for your team whether it is blocking a shot, throwing a hit or scoring a goal.”
The goals did not come very much in Boston as he did what he needed defensively and let others carry the scoring.
He did plenty of scoring with the Panthers last season — especially just before Christmas.
In 180 games with the Bruins, Acciari had 18 goals and 31 points.
His biggest goal output came in 2017-18 when he scored 10.
He scored his 11th of the 2019-20 season with his third goal on Dec. 20.
Acciari ended the abbreviated season with a new career-high of 20 — more than doubling his career output in just one year with the Panthers.
Before a home game against Ottawa on Dec. 16, coach Joel Quenneville moved Acciari up from the fourth line and put him on wing of the second.
Playing with Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau, Acciari became a scoring machine.
In his first game moved up, he recorded his first-ever NHL hat trick in a 6-1 win over the Senators.
Baseball caps hit the ice when Acciari celebrated his accomplishment, but so did rubber rats. That made Acciari smile.
“You know, that’s part of being a Panther,’’ he said afterward. “Seeing the rats come down was exciting.”
A few days later, on Dec. 20 in a 7-4 home win against Dallas, he got his second hat trick of his NHL career. His previous hat trick before the game against Ottawa came with the AHL Providence Bruins.
In the victory over the Stars, Acciari scored twice within a span of 32 seconds in the second period.
Acciari got his second consecutive hat trick by scoring on his first career penalty shot on a shorthanded chance.
“Don’t trip, don’t fall,” said Acciari when asked what was going through his mind as he readied to go 1-on-1 against goalie Anton Khudobin.
“I don’t do too many of those so it was kind of nerve-wracking. Again, you don’t think about it, just go. I followed that puck all the way off my stick to see if it squeezed through. I was just relieved.”
By recording a hat trick in consecutive games, Acciari went into the team record book in becoming only the second player (Pavel Bure is the other) to accomplish that feat.
The night following his second hat trick, Acciari kept scoring by giving the Panthers a 4-1 third-period lead in Carolina.
“He is the best guy in the world,” Trocheck, who assisted on the first two goals on Dec. 20, said after that game.
“Having back-to-back hat tricks could not have happened to a better guy. It has been so much fun watching him turn into Gretzky out there.’’
In the month of December, Acciari scored a total of eight goals. He had six all of the previous season with the Bruins.
Acciari scored 31 goals as a high school senior in Connecticut. His 20 goals last season with the Panthers are the most he has scored in a single season — at any level — since.
“It was a very exciting time, it felt like everything I threw on net went in,” Acciari said during the break between the regular season and the Return to Play.
“Being able to play with all those different guys, having the confidence of Coach Q to be up with those guys like Huby, Troch, Barky, Conns … they are very skilled and talented guys. Being able to capitalize when with them was an awesome feeling.
“Every guy in the NHL was the top scorer on his team growing up but to make it, a lot of times, you have to find your niche. Mine was as a fourth-line grinder, a banger who played defensive hockey. In Florida, I got to play with some offensive guys and the scoring touch came out. I just ran with it.”
Before the Panthers returned for summer training camp, Acciari was announced as the Panthers’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy which goes to a “player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.’’
The award is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and he was nominated by the members of the Florida chapter.
When it comes to “dedication’’ to the game of hockey, few exemplify that as much as Acciari does.
“Anything you can do to put your team in position to win, I take pride in doing that,” Acciari said. “I try and do that every game, do it every day.”
Acciari spent parts of four seasons with Boston, playing in 180 games plus 35 more in the playoffs.
In 2019, he fractured his sternum in a second-round game against Carolina yet returned to help the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Not long after the Bruins lost to the Blues in the Cup Finals, he was one of four to sign a free agent deal with the Panthers, inking a three-year deal.
As is usually the case with Acciari, he was overlooked on signing day.
The headline went to the $70 million deal Sergei Bobrovsky got; the sidebars focused on the additions of Brett Connolly and Anton Stralman.
Only Acciari may have had the biggest impact of all of Florida’s free agent signees at least in Year 1.
Not only did he score a career-high 20 goals but he led the Panthers with 121 hits.
“That’s a pretty impressive stat,” goalie Chris Driedger said earlier this summer.
“That’s pretty indicative to what kind of a player, what kind of teammate he is.”