It’s taken longer than he might have expected, but Taylor Hall is finally positioned for long playoff run

© Jim Davis/Globe Staff With eight goals and six assists in 16 games, Taylor Hall has had a lot to get excited about since joining the Bruins.

WASHINGTON — This wasn’t the script Taylor Hall saw written in his mind’s eye. No way. C’mon, stop the crazy.

Never did he think he would be 11 seasons into his NHL career, age 29, 680 regular season games played … and only the pocket change of 14 playoff games to nowhere jangling in his well-tailored trousers.

Finally, with a Bruins’ Spoked-B as the fifth NHL sweater he’s worn, Hall suited up here Saturday night vs. the Capitals with the reasonable expectation of a long, meaningful postseason run.

No guarantees, of course. The Cup, or even a trip to the Final, is so often a cruel, elusive mistress. The mind’s eye, Hall is well aware, can be full of optical illusions and false promise.

If Hall’s learned anything in the NHL, it’s that the hockey business, and life within it, comes with as many whimsical, capricious changes in direction as the puck itself.

“You make plans,” Hall said wistfully one recent afternoon, after landing in Boston upon a short-lived stay with the Sabres, “and, like, God laughs, so I guess that’s the expression, right?”

But the promise, the current outlook, was never this enticing in Edmonton, where he began, where he never saw the postseason. Never like this in New Jersey or Arizona, cities where he dipped his toe but once into the playoff waters.

None of these last 11 years could he have imagined that June day in 2010 when, sitting aside his folks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Hall watched Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini sidle up to the podium.

“With the historic first selection of the National Hockey League draft, 2010, ” said an anxious Tambellini, “I’m extremely excited to select, from the Windsor Spitfires … Taylor Hall.”

The arena cameras zoomed in on Hall, standing and hugging his mom and dad. All smiles. The split-screen TV image showed jubilant fans crazy with joy at Rexall Place back in Edmonton. It also caught a baby-faced Tyler Seguin, who moments later would be selected No. 2 by the Bruins, politely applauding his fellow wunderkind.

“All I can tell you is this, he’s the best player on the draft board,” said an effusive Pierre McGuire, the TV analyst that afternoon. “He’s the best player.”

Talking directly to Edmonton fans, McGuire summoned the names of Oiler greats Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, and Mark Messier, noting that Hall’s game borrowed bits from each of them. Key traits: power, speed, and finish, but especially the speed, his legs energized as if he were some comic book hero.

“This guy gets winning,” promised McGuire. “He does. He gets it.”

No one knows how it all might have played out had Seguin topped the market that afternoon. Seguin to the Oilers. Hall undoubtedly to the Bruins. Fate to who knows where?

“Who knows what would have happened had I got drafted [by the Bruins] … how the career kind of shakes out?” mused Hall. “But that’s kind of the way it goes.”

Hall was dealt to New Jersey after six seasons in Edmonton, traded by ex-Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. Seguin was shipped to Dallas after three seasons (and one Cup) in Boston. The next nine picks, in fact, all eventually were shipped out by the clubs that drafted them.

“Yeah, everyone sees Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and these guys (see: Alex Ovechkin, No. 8 in the Capitals lineup) playing for one team,” added Hall, “but for a lot of NHL players, you’re on a couple of teams, you find the right fit somewhere, you’re there for a while … and then things just happen.”

The business of hockey. Things just happen.

“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly.”

The Boston lineup that skated onto the Bank One Arena ice for Game 1 Saturday night included 11 other forwards who totaled 774 playoff games, an average roughly five times that of Hall.

In aggregate, the Boston lineup, Hall included, included 1,050 games of playoff experience, led by Patrice Bergeron (149) and David Krejci (145). A far, far cry from the paltry totals in Hall’s New Jersey and Arizona lineups in 2018 and ’20, respectively.

So it was not hard to understand how excited Hall must have been, a decade-plus into an empty dream sheet, to line up Saturday with Krejci (three visits to the Cup Final) and Craig Smith (52 games of playoff experience in Nashville).

“You just never know when you’re going to be back, never know when you’re going to get that chance — and have a great chance,” said Charlie Coyle, whose 81 games of postseason experience included the Bruins run to Game 7 of the Cup Final in 2019. “I think we know what we have here, and what we’re capable of, what we can do … you want to take advantage of that opportunity. And I know a guy like [Hall], he definitely feels that and knows that … we all do … every time you’re there, you want to make the most of it. You don’t want to look back and have regrets say, ‘If only we did that,’, or ‘wish we’d done that.’’

Hall “is kind of a quieter guy with a relaxed confidence feel to him,” said Coyle.

“But I think you kind of know what’s going through everyone’s heads. And how excited everyone is, whether they show it or not. You don’t really have to show it. We know it’s in us and we know it’s in him, too.”

Brad Marchand, he of 121 playoff games, was on the ice Saturday morning, one of a handful of Boston regulars to buzz around in the optional day-of-game skate. At age 33, this is his ninth postseason. The emotion of the playoffs never escapes the L’il Ball o’ Hate.

“I think [Hall] is excited for the opportunity,” said Marchand. “When you’re on a team as deep as ours, to have that opportunity to play for a Cup, you know, it doesn’t come around often. And the longer you’re around, the more you realize it is a very difficult thing to make the playoffs and have a chance to win the Cup.”

Hall was named the league MVP (Hart Trophy) in 2018, the year he carried the Devils into the postseason. He has signed deals worth in excess of $52 million (per capfriendly.com).

He has never come close to seeing his name etched into the Cup. He has never had such a chance as this one, to get his game in such a fine romance.

“I think he’s excited, more than anything,” said Marchand. “He’s had a great career so far, been in the league a long time, and I think he truly understands now how hard it is to get on a team that is a potential contender.”

The playoffs have begun. Taylor Hall is smiling, knowing full well that God may be laughing.