John Beecher was sitting around his Boston area apartment with his roommate Matt Poitras, a place they had gotten together after they’d made the Bruins’ varsity roster out of training camp, musing about the sometimes fleeting existence of young pro athletes.

Beecher had been demoted to the Providence Bruins and Matt Poitras was set to have season-ending shoulder surgery.

“I was looking at him when we were sitting on the couch and I was like ‘Man, things took a turn for the worse on us,” Beecher recalled with a smile on Saturday morning. “We just kind of laughed about it. It’s part of the lifestyle with both live.”

While Poitras is still working his back with hopes of being ready for training camp next September, things took a turn for the better for Beecher. After spending two months down in Providence, he was recalled on March 14 and has pretty much been a fixture in the lineup since then, playing in 13 of the remaining 15 games. He was set to see his first Stanley Cup playoff action on Saturday night against the Leafs.

“I’m definitely excited about the whole experience,” said Beecher. “You grow up as a kid watching and pretending that you’re in the Stanley Cup final in your backyard playing street hockey. Having the chance to now be a part of it is unreal. There’s definitely a little bit of nerves and jitters but I’m sure once the game gets going I’ll settle in and be ready to rock.”

Beecher has been skating as the left wing on a fourth line with center Jesper Boqvist and right wing Pat Maroon. But he has been taking most of the faceoffs and he could be a valuable piece for the B’s on the penalty kill and in late lead-protection situations. With a 54.6% faceoff win mark, he barely trails Pavel Zacha (54.8%) for tops on the B’s

Coach Jim Montgomery has seen growth in the gritty parts of Beecher’s game

“Intensity and one-on-one battles. That was an area where we felt he needed to go down and focus on. And it’s an area that’s drastically improved,” said Montgomery. “His faceoffs and penalty-killing have always been something we really value.”

Beecher, who had 7-3-10 totals in 52 games, can see the growth in his game.

“It’s one of those things where, yeah, you don’t want to be sent down but that’s way above my pay grade to determine that,” said Beecher. “At the end of the day, I think it was good for me. I was able to go down and refocus, reset right around the middle part of the season, gain some confidence, get in a little better shape by just playing more minutes every night. So yeah, I think at the end of the day it was good for me. It’s just part of the business.”

His mandated focus was to stay locked in.

“A lot of it is just the consistency component of it,” said Beecher. “I’ve conversations with Monty and (GM Don Sweeney) about just bringing it. If we play three games in a weekend, bringing it two or three games as opposed to one game. I think that will be a big thing for me just to take a step forward and take ownership of that, making sure I’m ready to show up each and every night, especially this time of the year. There’s not a single time you can take a game off anymore. I’m excited for the challenge ahead and it’ll be good.”

When he was asked whether he’s liked the consistency that Beecher has brought, Montgomery’s answer underscored the day-to-day nature of this time of year.

“It’s a whole new world today. It’s playoffs,” said Montgomery. “We’ll see how it goes (Saturday night). For everybody, not just him.”…

The B’s somewhat surprisingly had a full morning skate after two full days of practice, though they didn’t stay on the ice much longer than 15 minutes.

“I didn’t think we needed to go on thee ice today but the players wanted to and that’s just common. It’s an 8 o’’clock game. 7 o’clock game, we probably wouldn’t have been out there,” said Montgomery…

Derek Forbort, taking a surprising stab at returning to the B’s lineup after undergoing surgery for two undisclosed injuries, played for the Providence Bruins on Friday during his conditioning stint.

“He’s just trending along the steps. From what I head, he looked rusty,” said Montgomery….

The scratches for Saturday night were expected to be James van Riemsdyk up front and Parker Wotherspoon on defense. Mason Lohrei was returned to Providence…

The B’s head into this series with six straight first round wins over the Leafs in first round series. The only franchise that had more consecutive first round wins over another franchise was Montreal against — you guessed it — the Bruins with 10 dating from 1947 to 1987.

If the B’s prevail in a Game 7 this year, they would tie a record for most consecutive Game 7 wins over one franchise. The record of four is held by the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Washington Capitals.