Bruce Cassidy kept things quick when discussing his latest shuffling of the Bruins’ lineup on Saturday afternoon.
The return of Karson Kuhlman and the emergence of youngsters like Jeremy Lauzon and Anton Blidh have come at the perfect time for Cassidy — allowing Boston’s bench boss to tinker with his roster and scratch regulars that haven’t been playing up to the club’s standards.
Sean Kuraly drew the short straw in that regard on Saturday.
"Sean, again, little more competitive spirit, we've got to pull out of his game,” Cassidy said in Minnesota. “That's what we're looking for.”
While Kuraly might be on pace to surpass his previous career high for points in a season (21), the speedy forward has struggled this year in terms of consistently bringing the hard-nosed, physical game that was the hallmark of an effective fourth line for Boston over the last couple of seasons.
As such, it was Kuraly that had to watch Boston’s 6-1 win over Minnesota from high above the ice at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.
It might have been a tough pill for Kuraly to swallow in the moment, but Boston’s growing depth chart has proven to be an effective tool for Cassidy — especially when it comes to lighting a fire under players that will be trusted when the stakes are much higher this spring.
It sure looks like Kuraly got the memo on Tuesday.
The scenery was different for Kuraly in his return to the lineup against the Vancouver Canucks, with the 27-year-old skater shifted over to the wing on a new-look third line with Charlie Coyle and Anders Bjork. But it didn't take very long for Kuraly to make his presence felt in the simplest of ways — landing a heavy check against Canucks defenseman Christopher Tanev just 21 seconds into the opening period.
"I think I just wanted to make it known that I was going to play hard and be competitive and win my battles," Kuraly said. "It's a pretty easy way to show that that's how you're going to play."
Kuraly clearly took his recent benching to heart, given that the winger did his best impression of a bull in a china shop whenever Cassidy deployed his line against Vancouver. In just 12:57 of ice time, Kuraly stuffed the stat sheet, landing four shots on goal and dishing out five hits in what was an eventual 4-0 win for Boston over the Canucks.
There weren't any new tricks that Kuraly pulled out of his bucket for his anticipated return to the lineup. Rather, a refocused adherence to the strengths of his game allowed him to put together one of his best performances in quite some time. A willingness to fight inside led to a slew of quality looks for the Bruins whenever Kuraly and his forward grouping was out on the ice, with his four shots on goal coming from an average of just 22.5 feet away from Jacob Markstrom in the Canucks' net.
Kuraly was rewarded with a point in the third period thanks to his tendency to operate out of Grade-A areas in the offensive zone — as Kuraly traded passes with David Krejci down low before his centering feed set up Krejci's 13th tally of the year with 5:51 remaining in regulation.
"I liked it a lot better," Cassidy said of Kuraly's game on Tuesday. "He had the puck, he was assertive, trying to get to the net. ... I thought he got in shooting lanes. Sometimes freeing up and going to the wing allows you to do some of that; you’re not worried about what’s going on behind me or first back in the zone. It’s something we’ve talked about with Sean — do we toggle him, or try him over there? I thought it worked out well tonight for him and he showed the player he can be for us."