There are, of course, a couple of ways to view the fact Sean Kuraly is the top-scoring Boston Bruins forward of the past week.
Kuraly, the team’s fourth-line centre, has three points in three contests against the Toronto Maple Leafs since the end of Game 2. That’s one more than David Pastrnak, two more than Brad Marchand and three more than the third member of Boston’s top line, Patrice Bergeron, who was forced out of Game 4 with an upper-body injury.
Viewed through a certain lens, Boston’s upside down scoring stats could be seen as a crisis. It would be a lot easier to look at it that way, however, if the big boys weren’t still getting their chances. In Games 3 and 5 in particular, Bergeron’s trio had all kinds of zone time and attempts on net. That’s why, when Toronto bench boss Mike Babcock was asked on Monday morning about his team keeping the line in check he responded with a question of his own.
“We have?”
Boston coach Bruce Cassidy acknowledged the bottom-line element to his stars’ lack of production, noting opportunities must be converted to goals at some point. Still, he’s not sweating things too much just yet.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily [that they’ve been] held out of the game, but they’ve been held in check because [the Leafs] have done a good job and the goalie has made saves,” Cassidy said. “We do believe we can win without them scoring. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet, but we do believe that can happen. It happened all year for us.”
Even if the top of the lineup starts connecting again, the Bruins will obviously be more than happy to retain the offence generated by Kuraly and his fellow fourth-liners Tim Schaller and Noel Acciari. Kuraly has two assists and two goals in the series, including the one that occurred late in the second period of Game 5 — after some brilliant work by third-pair defenceman Matt Grzelcyk — that pulled Boston within two goals of Toronto and announced the B’s wouldn’t be going quietly into the night.
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Schaller and Acciari each have a pair of points versus the Leafs and the trio is ranked 1-2-3 — Kuraly, Schaller, Acciari — in terms of points-per-60 minutes among Boston forwards in the series.
Cassidy lauded the less-glamorous aspects of each player — dependable, 200-foot games all around, physical yet disciplined play — and noted their offence isn’t a complete surprise.
“They’re not labeled goal-scorers, but they can all score a goal here and there and they have five-on-five,” he said. “They’re not fast, but they have an ability to play north-south, so they don’t play slow. They can play against anybody and we trust them against anybody any time during the game.”
By way of some background, they’re all American, two of them — Acciari and Schaller — are New Englanders, not one of them was drafted by the Bruins and while they’d all combined to play just 150 NHL games before this season, nobody is a true greenhorn. Kuraly, a fifth-round pick of San Jose back in 2011, is the baby of the group at 25.
“We’re not young kids, so we’ve kinda grown into our bodies a bit,” said Kuraly, the only one of the trio who was taken in an NHL Draft.
Contributions from all corners of the roster has been a theme for the Bruins in the series, extending to nearly every part of the bench. In fact, the only player to dress in all five games and not register at least a single point is rookie Danton Heinen.
“It’s huge,” left-winger Rick Nash said of the spread-around scoring, noting it was key for the Pittsburgh Penguins during their Cup runs in the past two years. “If you want to go far in the playoffs, you need it.”
And nobody on Boston takes it for granted, whether the scoring comes in the form of a critical tally when the top line is struggling or icing on the cake when all cylinders are firing. Kuraly and his crew have certainly felt the love.
“What’s really awesome about it is how much we feel like the team appreciates us,” Kuraly said. “Any time we’re doing something, you’ve got the top guys in our ear, patting our back.”
They’ve certainly earned every word and heartfelt whack.
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