The lone change up front for the Bruins’ forward corps on Friday night was a skater shuffle on the fourth line, but there was plenty for Bruce Cassidy and his staff to sort through when looking at Boston’s bottom-six.
Sure, putting Noel Acciari back in the lineup made sense — given both his three-game stretch as a healthy scratch and Gamel Smith’s limited reps (10:00 average TOI).
But there were a few other factors to weigh, with Sean Kuraly shiny new shield forcing the speedy center to shift off the pivot. Just a day removed from a minor procedure to alleviate a couple of fractures in his nose, Kuraly slotted in at left wing, while Acciari took over duties in the middle.
Usually a heat-seeking missile when allowed to wreak havoc along the boards, Acciari’s move to center might have been made out of necessity given Kuraly’s new gear — but the Providence product does have his merits when playing at the pivot.
“Putting Kuraly in the wing, Acciari in the middle was just kind of a thought process with Sean’s face, the way it was,” Cassidy said of his fourth line’s layout. “We weren’t sure how he’d be, asking him to defend down low, if playing with the face mask was going to be an issue. I like Noel in the middle — he’s responsible.
“Always allows his wingers to go and work. Sean was much better offensively without having to worry about the other end as much and getting back. So maybe we found something there.”
The final result might be a tough pill to swallow following Boston’s 5-3 loss to the Penguins on the road, but the B’s latest blend of a checking line was far from the problem on a night in which the B’s out-attempted Pittsburgh by an absurd 81-37 margin.
As expected, Boston’s top line of David Krejci, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand went to work — tallying a goal and holding an 11-6 edge in scoring chances at 5v5 play.
What few expected was the production put together by the Acciari line — and especially Chris Wagner on the right wing.
Yes, that line contributed on the scoresheet — with Wagner ripping home his third goal of the season of a feed from Charlie McAvoy in the third period. But one tally on the box score fails to grasp the way in which the new-look Acciari line imposed its will for most of Friday’s contest.
?GOAL?
The string of unlikely goal-scorers continues for the Bruins as this time its Chris Wagner!
Wagner — McAvoy (7:08) #NHLBruins 2#LetsGoPens 3 pic.twitter.com/iXKbOcy63K
— Boston Bruins on CLNS (@BruinsCLNS) December 15, 2018
