It was late in the third period of a 1-1 game Friday night at home against the Portland Pirates. 12-year NHL veteran Maxime Talbot picked up the puck on the near side and moved up ice.

Skating into the Portland zone 2-on-2, Talbot moved towards the net, only to get the puck briefly knocked away by a Pirates defender. However, he was able to keep his composure, regain the puck and flicked a nifty backhander by netminder Mike McKenna for the go-ahead goal.

The Bruins would go on to defeat the Pirates 3-2 in overtime on a beautiful goal by Seth Griffith.

“I got a good little chip by Koko (Alex Khokhlachev) on the wall, and we had a 2-on-1, 2-on-2 and I tried to go 1-on-1. I got a good bounce, and it went in,” Talbot said of his goal, his second of the season since joining Providence.

In a year that has so many ups, downs, twists and turns that would dwarf a Six Flags roller coaster ride, Talbot can certainly take this as a positive, which is exactly how is trying to view his demotions to Providence.

“When you’re up (in the NHL) and your only playing 8-12 minutes and every time you touch the puck you chip it, you tend to lose that confidence,” Talbot said, “so now down here (in Providence) I get to work on that confidence.”

Whether it’s NHL or AHL, when you have 673 career games in the National Hockey League and a Stanley Cup ring to boot, it is expected of you to be a leader to the younger players. No need to remind Talbot, as helping out and taking over the leadership role is another aspect he sees in a positive light.

“It’s something I don’t look at it personally, but I think professionally, as a team, so I’m trying to make these guys better as well.” head coach Bruce Cassidy echoed Talbot’s words, throwing some praises of his own in there as well.

“He’s a good veteran,” Cassidy says of his starting center, “[Max] says all the right things on the bench and in the lockerroom between periods and he makes plays on the ice… we are very thankful for that. He also brings that presence to keep the players focused and calm them down.”

Already having being sent down three times this year, Talbot understands that working on his overall game is what he needs to do to get that recall that keeps him in Boston for the remainder of the season.

To Talbot, he just needs to work on that confidence he admittedly had lost during his tenure with the Parent Club.

“I just have to be more comfortable with the puck, more patient,” Talbot adds, “creating some stuff, and doing what Max Talbot is good at, which is bringing passion and doing what I’ve always been doing.”

Talbot has undoubtedly found his confidence over the last several games. During the P-Bruins’ three-game weekend which saw them put together their first winning streak of the season, along with his goal on Friday, Talbot added an assist on Alex Khokhlachev’s second period goal, which would turn out to be the game-winner. Then in Saturday’s 3-1 road win at the Springfield Falcons, Talbot potted two power-play goals in a 6-1 home win over those same Springfield Falcons on Sunday.

So far this season, Talbot has 10 points (four goals and six assists) in 10 games with a plus-3 rating.

“He’s been around a long time,” Cassidy said, “If he wants to be a center, he’ll have to work on his faceoffs and work on his penalty killing. He’s one of the last guys off the ice, and he’ll grab the young guys and work with them. Those are the things that you need the older guys to do.”

“It’s not a situation you want to be in as a professional athlete. But I’ve always been the type of guy that looks at the glass half-full, and I have to work on my game,” Talbot stated, “Being here is going to push me, play 20 minutes and get some fancy looks. Hopefully, I can get my confidence back and get another shot up there.”