From a Playoff Scratch to a Standout for Boston

BOSTON - By the time Dougie Hamilton reached high school in St. Catharines, Ontario, he had found his sporting passion. The child of two Canadian Olympians, he tried all sports and excelled in most of them before concentrating on hockey.

Then he grew five inches in high school, reaching 6 feet 5 inches and startling his mother, Lynn, who wondered if her son had made the right choice.

'How I ever ended up with a 6-foot-5 boy, I'll never know,' said Lynn Hamilton, a 5-8 former basketball player who married a 6-2 former rower. 'If I had known he was going to be 6 foot 5, I'd have made sure I had the next Steve Nash.'

The Boston Bruins are simply happy to have the first Dougie Hamilton.

As the Bruins open their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Montreal Canadiens at home Thursday night, Hamilton, a 20-year-old defenseman, is happy to be part of the playoff push.

In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Hamilton played in all but six of the Bruins' 48 regular-season games. But he was a healthy scratch for 15 of the team's 22 playoff games, including all of the conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals.

That will not happen this year. Hamilton is a regular presence on the blue line, sometimes teaming with the 6-9 Zdeno Chara. Hamilton had 4 points in Boston's five-game first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings, including the winning goal in Game 3.

'Last year was tough; I've never been through anything like that,' Hamilton said. 'I wanted to be contributing to the team.'

He added, 'It was a little bit of a learning experience for me, and it made me hungrier.'

Although the experience was humbling, there might have been an explanation: Hamilton was simply tired. He probably played more hockey last season than any of his Bruins teammates.

He began the year with his junior team, the Niagara IceDogs, in St. Catharines. He competed for Canada in the world junior championships in Russia from late December to early January. Then he returned to the IceDogs. Only when the lockout ended in January did Hamilton jump to the N.H.L. He had already played in 32 games for Niagara and six at the world juniors.

'This kid was playing all the way through, and he was playing a ton,' Niagara Coach Marty Williamson said. 'He definitely wore down. While the other guys were waiting for the lockout to end, he was playing 30-plus minutes a game for us.'

This season, Hamilton appeared in 64 of the Bruins' 82 regular-season games, missing much of December with a lower-body injury and a week in January with a mild concussion. His winning goal against the Red Wings in Game 3, helping Boston take a 2-1 series lead, was the first playoff goal of his career. He also set up the first goal in the series-clinching Game 5 victory with an end-to-end rush.

'Sometimes, we tend to forget, but it's hard to believe he's only 20,' Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. 'He's such a terrific talent, and his hockey I.Q. is so high. I guess it's a compliment because he plays way beyond his years.'

Bruins Coach Claude Julien, when asked if he expected Hamilton to develop into an elite defenseman, said: 'Absolutely. Not a doubt in my mind. But we've got to give him the time to become that elite player.'

Lynn Hamilton played basketball for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and at the 1986 world championships in the Soviet Union. In the 1986 tournament, she had 7 points in Canada's victory over Czechoslovakia to clinch the bronze medal.

Hamilton's father, Doug Sr., was an elite rower and earned a bronze medal in 1984 in Los Angeles. He also competed several times in the Head of the Charles Regatta, a rowing event held each October in Boston.

Neither parent, however, was a hockey player. But Dougie and his older brother, Freddie, became N.H.L.-caliber players. Freddie Hamilton, nearly 18 months older, played most of this season with the Worcester Sharks, the San Jose Sharks' affiliate in the American Hockey League. He was called up to the parent team for its game against the Bruins in Boston on Oct. 24. Both parents attended.

Freddie Hamilton played 11 games for San Jose and was a practice player with the Sharks for their playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings, the role his younger brother had for most of the 2013 playoffs with the Bruins.

Dougie Hamilton has moved on from that assignment.

'I just think I'm more comfortable and can see the game a lot easier compared to last year,' he said. 'It's like the first year in juniors, where things are moving so fast. Then, by your third or fourth year, you're slowing down. Hopefully, I can get to that point in the N.H.L.'

His coach and his teammates would say he is already there.

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