On up-and-down night, Bruins’ bottom-six provides some much-needed pushback against Kraken

At the end of the day, two points are still two points — regardless of the manner in which they were acquired. 

That being said, Bruce Cassidy wasn’t going wax poetic about the play of his team on a night in which the Bruins needed a third-period retort to best the cellar-dwelling Kraken in regulation.

What once looked like a professional, by-the-book victory for the Bruins against a ragtag expansion roster quickly devolved into a maelstrom — with the Bruins forced to weather the storm after a two-goal lead evaporated within the first eight minutes of the third period. 

And even though Boston’s eventual victory was paved by star names such as David Pastrnak (two goals, one assist) and Taylor Hall (one goal, one assist), Cassidy was far from thrilled with the lulls that turned Tuesday’s contest into an unnecessary nail-biter, with plenty of said miscues coming from established regulars in the lineup. 

“We weren't very respectful of the game in a number of instances with the puck, for whatever reason,” Cassidy said postgame. “Could be you get off the road, first game back. Maybe you're looking forward to the break. I don't know. And it was some of our veteran guys that typically don't fall into that category. So at the end of the day, they got it back. Got a big goal for us on the power play and we held on and got some saves and got the win.”

But on a night in which a glass-half-empty mentality could have easily prevailed given Boston’s stop-and-go play, Cassidy did manage to find some silver linings with the play further down on his depth chart. 

Yes, names like Curtis Lazar, Steven Fogarty and Anton Blidh didn't record any points in Boston’s eventual 3-2 win. But the Bruins’ crop of battle-hardened worker bees still left their fingerprints all over a much-needed win — providing some much-needed pushback against a Kraken team that easily could have stolen a point or two on Causeway Street.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, said pushback was a necessary response — with a dangerous hit from Yanni Gourde smashing Urho Vaakanainen into the unforgiving glass at TD Garden. The 23-year-old defenseman fell to the ice in a heap, cut from the collision and eventually needed help off the ice.  

Vaakanainen — whose career was significantly derailed years prior due to concussion issues — did not return for the remainder of the night. 

“The concussion spotter took him off and he never returned,” Cassidy said. “I didn’t like the hit at all. For them not to make (a major) call on it was unbelievable to me given the standard they set. I don’t understand the standard tonight for that not to be a call immediately and maybe be a 5 (minute major) never mind having to look at it just to get (a minor). ... I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t like the call, but you move on and you play.”

Less than a week after the Bruins saw one of their own players chased across the ice in Denver, the B's finally opted to follow a similar physical script in response to Vaakanainen’s exit.

Shortly after Gourde exited the sin bin, the Bruins made their intentions pretty clear. As the puck dropped on an O-zone faceoff, Fogarty tried to get a rise out Gourde with a shove — with Lazar jumping in and eventually pushing the Kraken top-six forward to the ice, yanking off his bucket in the process. 

Sure, it wasn’t a knockout blow — and Gourde was far from a willing participant throughout the fracas — but it was a response that was necessary, especially given the optics of Vaakanainen’s exit. 

“The response was good. I mean, you never know what's gonna escalate, but you want to be physical against their good players,” Cassidy said. “And if you have an opportunity to send a message back to the guy in the right manner — you do it. I don't think there was anything dirty about it at all. 

“It was a faceoff that turned into a scrum that, at the end of the day, two guys went at it they got separated. So you're trying to do the right thing, stay in the moment and not let the game get away from you — take care of business without completely losing your composure and discipline. That's one way to do it. And I thought we handled it well and got to work after that.” 

Sure enough, while the Kraken did get a power play out of the brouhaha (which the B’s easily negated), Boston’s fourth line eventually did get the last laugh.

Pastrnak might have put Boston ahead for good at 10:49 in the third period, but the power-play tally was the byproduct of a heavy shift from the trio of Blidh, Fogarty and Oskar Steen — whose tenacious play eventually led to a tripping call that put Boston on the man advantage. 

While names like Blidh and Steen have been familiar faces (and pleasant surprises) in Boston’s lineup for quite some time now, Cassidy was impressed by Fogarty’s response on Tuesday, in what stood as his second game up with the B’s all season.

“For him, he's here — trying to make the team, play more minutes. You got to contribute how you can and that was an opportunity to try to go out and have a physical shift,” Cassidy said of Fogarty. “They did it later — had a good forecheck shift that actually drew the penalty for the winning goal. It was him and Blidh and Steen — three young guys that were able to go play north-south hockey and be physical and win some pucks and win some races, put a little stress on their D. Forced them into a penalty,  so good for them for contributing in that way.” 

Tuesday’s win was far from perfect. In fact, you could say it was downright ugly. 

Such is how some games are won in the dog days of the regular season. And when you're able to deploy players with game-breaking skills like Pastrnak, it's much easier to skirt some of the consequences that come with lackluster execution.

But in the midst of a largely forgettable — and underwhelming — February contest, Boston's bottom-six foot soldiers at least presented a compelling case for a glass-half-full sentiment.