Bruins’ first and fourth lines shine in win over Canadiens

BOSTON — The Bruins bounced back from their season-opening loss to the Panthers in a big way on Thursday night, treating home fans to an offensive show in their home opener. Boston got a big performance from its top line in a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens, which was only outshined by the Bruins’ fourth line.

We’ll start at the top, as new top centerman Elias Lindholm led the B’s first line in a dominant first two periods. Lindholm was busy in the opening period, assisting on the first goal of the game (an aggressive power play snipe from Charlie McAvoy) before scoring his first goal in a Boston sweater. 

With the game tied 2-2, Lindholm redirected a shot by Nikita Zadorov (who was also making his home debut as a Bruin) with 1:38 left in the frame to put Boston on top. Zadorov was credited with his second helper of the season on the play.

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The top line was at it again early in the second period, when Pavel Zacha served up a beautiful feed to David Pastrnak in the slot for a one-timer. Pasta finished the play with a filthy wrister to give Boston a 4-2 edge.

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Lindholm finished his first game in front of his new Boston fans with a goal and two assists. Pastrnak had a goal on six shots and an assist, while Zacha had a helper to go with two shots. The line was aggressive and quick, and generated a lot of traffic in front of the net.

“They were good,” Boston head coach Jim Montgomery said the Patrnak-Lindholm-Zacha line. “They were good on the power play. They were good five-on-five. I thought Lindholm, I think he’s starting to get more juice in his legs and we saw him win a lot more battles. I think the underappreciated part of his game is the little things like winning battles and the things he does to give his teammates time and space.”

Lindholm was happy with the top line’s production, but overall said it was just a “decent” night from the group.

“First period, that’s the way we want to play,” Lindholm told reporters after the win. “We were playing really well and after that, the second period we were controlling the game a bit. The third we sat back too much, but overall it was a decent game from our side.”

Boston’s top line was a bit better than decent on Thursday night, but the team’s fourth line may have even better. Mark Kastelic tallied a pair of goals, Cole Koepke scored one to go with two assists, and Johnny Beecher had a helper as the line accumulated six points. The trio also set the tone with their physicality, delivering seven hits. 

It was Kastelic who knotted things up after the Canadiens had taken a 2-1 lead in the first, thanks to a dominant and heavy shift from the fourth line. It that ended with the center beating Cayden Primeau top shelf to make it a 2-2 game.

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After Lindholm and Pastrnak did their thing, Koepke got in on the scoring fun with his first goal as a Bruin, burying a rebound to make it a 5-2 Boston lead. The fourth line came through again after Montreal cut it to a 5-4 game with 4:17 left in the game, when Kastelic’s pass to Beecher deflected off a Canadien and into the net to give Boston a 6-4 cushion. That came after Koepke took a hit to get the puck into the offensive zone.

“They were unbelievable,” Lindholm said of the fourth line. “They played really well last game too and created a lot of energy. They’re a lot of big bodies that are tough to play against.

“They were our best line tonight,” added Lindholm. 

Montgomery said the contributions and playing style of his fourth line were “huge” on Thursday night. 

“Kastelic scored [47 goals one season] in junior hockey, so it’s something that he can do. And it was just nice to see how hard they went to the net,” said Montgomery. “Like the Koepke goal, that’s Johnny Beecher taking it hard to the net. And Kastelic’s first goal, Koepke originally took the puck hard to the net, which created that offensive zone time.”

Montgomery wants to see more of that hard play from everyone on the roster.

“It’s something that we feel that, with the speed and the size of our team, that we want to do more of,” said Montgomery. “It’s not easy to do, but that was a good sign.”

The Bruins were far from perfect on Thursday night, as their defense — which was supposed to be the team’s strength this season — left a lot to be desired for a second straight game to start the 2024-25 campaign. But the Boston offense showed vast improvements from Opening Night, and helped erase that sour taste leftover the team’s visit to Florida on Tuesday.