Spending parts of five seasons with the Bruins, defenseman Matt Bartkowski had his ups and downs. From on ice struggles to bouncing in and out of the lineup, Bartkowski failed to grab a consistent role in Boston and stick with it.

After struggling through the 2013-14 campaign, Bartkowski signed a one-year deal to remain in Boston in July of 2014, making the 2014-15 season an important one for Bartkowski.

As the Bruins struggled a season ago, so too did Bartkowski, who only played in 47 games. With four points on the season, a minus-six rating and just shy of 17 minutes of ice time per game, General Manager Don Sweeney decided the club wouldn’t be bringing Bartkowski back ending his once-promising tenure in Boston.

Now calling Vancouver home, Bartkowski has been an important part of the Canucks d-core. Gone are the days of worrying about whether or not he would be in the lineup — or even worse be sent back down to the American Hockey League. Bartkowski has played in all but one of the Canucks games this season.

Despite the struggles and lack of consistency, Bartkowski enjoyed his time in Boston as the Bruins organization helped develop him as a person and professional.

“I have a lot of good memories here. I developed here as a player, now it’s good to, I guess, have that piece of mind [to be in the lineup everynight],” Bartkowski told the media following the Canucks’ morning skate at TD Garden Thursday morning.

As tough as leaving Boston was for Bartkowski, the fresh start was just as exciting.

“I was definitely excited about the fresh start, but hard you know, I have a lot of good friends here, some good relationships with everyone, it’s a great city, it was difficult,” Bartkowski added.

The transition to Vancouver has worked well for the 27-year old who already has set a career-high in goals this season with two. Bartkowski’s lone goal as a Bruin came in Game 7 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Despite wins in two of their last four contests, things have been a bit rocky for the Canucks of late, especially in their own zone where they’ve allowed 177 shots on goal in those four games. Bartkowski and the rest of the Canucks defense feel as if they’ve found the root of the problem

“I think that’s really important. I don’t know the exact number, but it’s over 160 the last four games—the amount of shots we’ve given up,” Bartkowski said about playing better in their own zone. ”But a lot of that comes from puck management and making better plays with the puck, taking care of it.”

In early December the Bruins traveled to Vancouver and blanked the Canucks, 4-0. It was a sloppy outing for Bartkowski and the Canucks. The Bruins had just 22 shots on that night.

“That was a long time ago, I think more we are just focused on what we’ve done the last four games,” said Bartkowski. ”Like we talked about earlier, we’ve given up a lot of shots, and I think it’s more puck management and more positioning.”

Entering TD Garden for the first time as a visitor, Bartkowski knows this is a much different Bruins team than the one he skated with this time last season.

Bartkowski hopes for a different result than the one that occurred north of the border in December.

“Absolutely. I mean I think for instance, one of the first years I came here we had one of the worst power plays in the league and now they’re number one,” Bartskowski said with a laugh.

“So that kind of tells the story of where they’ve come from, what they’ve become and it’s just a little different, different guys, different team and I don’t know, maybe a different mentality. You know now they emphasize the D skating more and not so much the old stuff we use to do. It’s just different.”