Ducks star Troy Terry poised for 2nd All-Star Game appearance

There was plenty to savor for the first-place Boston Bruins when they were in town Jan. 8 to play the Anaheim Ducks.

At that point, they hadn’t lost in regulation in almost a month. Hours before the game, the smile of Bruins coach Jim Montgomery grew wider when the subject of Ducks star Troy Terry came up in the hallway outside the visitors’ dressing room at Honda Center.

“As a kid, he has this youthful exuberance about him,” said Montgomery, who coached Terry for three seasons at the University of Denver, where they won an NCAA championship together in 2017. “I think our staff helped him. And the culture at Denver at the time was to think about your teammates and winning first.

“His development in his offensive game – he was a player that could go end to end and he had to learn to give and go and he’s become a very good give-and-go player. That’s where his maturity has come, in valuing reloading and defensive hockey.”

Terry had once said in an interview with his hometown paper in Denver that Montgomery helped shape him from an “immature kid,” into the hockey player that he would become in the NHL, now named twice to the All-Star Game.

Terry was only 17 when he stepped on campus, Montgomery noted, because of his September birthday, and college was the best route for the promising teenager.

Much has changed in Terry’s world since that first day on campus. Terry is now 25, and he and his wife Dani are expecting their first child in May, adding to their household that already has two dogs.

On the ice, he has collected 157 points (65 goals, 92 assists) in 254 NHL games, which included points in 16 consecutive games last season. Terry has built upon his breakthrough season of 2021-22, in which he had 37 goals and 67 points in 75 games. He has 42 points in 50 games this season, which projects to 69 points in 82 games.

To do this in a climate of adversity – the Ducks (16-29-5) are 30th in the NHL – says a lot about Terry’s big-picture development. He went more than a month – in all, 16 games – without scoring and didn’t let it impact the rest of his game or his psyche before finally breaking out of it Jan. 24 at Arizona.

“I’ve always said I want to judge myself on being an impact player every game,” Terry said last week before the All-Star break. “I say that in the same breath that it’s also my job to score goals. It’s hard. I’ll be the first to tell you that it was definitely in the back of my mind that it had been awhile. It’s something trying to balance that, not trying to get too goal-oriented and points-oriented and that type of thing.

“I was still producing and still contributing – all that. The goal scoring I’ve become accustomed to in the NHL, it was hard for me going through that. It was nice to get one in Arizona and get it off my chest and then just play.”

The Ducks have not named a captain after Ryan Getzlaf’s retirement at the end of last season. but Terry has demonstrated many leadership qualities in this challenging campaign, speaking in terms of the team in what the All-Star break represented.

“It’s something that a lot of guys on this team need, especially with the timing,” he said.

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This weekend, Terry was looking forward to connecting with Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning during the All-Star festivities. Terry and his wife had planned on spending time by the pool in the week leading up to the All-Star Game Game on Saturday in Sunrise, Fla.

Still, certain aspects of decompressing were going to be difficult for him.

“It’s something that I need,” Terry said. “But I’ll tell you what – I’m not good at sitting at the pool all day. I go a little stir crazy.”