Bruins Find Their Identity in Bounce-Back Win Over Rangers

NEW YORK - The Bruins were at a low point following Friday night's loss at Madison Square Garden.
For the first time in recent memory, it appeared that the Black & Gold had lost their way after consecutive blowout losses to start the road trip. Outscored by the Islanders and Rangers, 13-4, across the two games, the B's identity had crumbled.
The hard-to-play-against, stingy, competitive Bruins had gone missing.
Boston began its search with a valuable practice session on Saturday in New York, while setting expectations for a more complete effort on Sunday afternoon.

That's exactly what they got. From start to finish, the Bruins played a far more familiar brand of hockey and salvaged the road trip with a convincing 4-1 victory over the Rangers at MSG.
"That's Bruins hockey for us," said Charlie Coyle, who potted two goals in the victory. "When we play that way, I think we have more fun and you see our work pay off, and we're a hard team to play against.
"We get the result more times than not when we play that way. You could see it every shift, guys doing their job, playing their role, plays into our identity and that's huge. It's fun to play that way, it's fun to get the result."
The tone was set from the drop of the puck when Boston's top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak started things off with an energetic and forceful opening shift, during which Marchand and Bergeron both delivered heavy hits on New York defenseman - and former Bruins draft pick - Ryan Lindgren.
"They're the leaders of this team so they need to set the standard in a lot of different ways," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "That's what we wanted to do the first shift and carry that over. When your leaders sort of bring that message or carry through the staff's messaging then it's a trickle-down effect.
"That's what happened. I thought for the most part today we made it very difficult on New York to generate offense. We knew if we checked well that eventually the goals are in that room."

Indeed, they were. On the heels of a strong start, the Bruins didn't wait long to get on the board, as Coyle got things started with his fourth goal of the season at 6:41 of the first period to give Boston a 1-0 lead. The center took a feed from Pastrnak in the neutral zone and entered the Rangers' end with a burst of speed, before surging past K'Andre Miller to lift one over the shoulder of goalie Alex Georgiev.
"I was trying to do what I did," Coyle, who also potted an empty-netter, said when asked his thought process during the goal. "[McAvoy] actually started it. He hit Pasta through [the neutral zone] and [Pastrnak] hit me with speed. I just tried to gain some speed, luckily the lane was open. Just tried to use a little play under the stick and luckily it went in."
Following a quieter performance from Coyle's line in the Bruins' loss on Friday night - and with David Krejci still out with injury - Cassidy was pleased to see the pivot take control and push his line with a solid all-around outing.
"Krech is out so Charlie has an opportunity to drive a little more offense, get some more O-zone draws, opportunities to play a little more in those roles," said Cassidy. "He took advantage of it and he's a guy that we consider that mid-level leader on our team. He took it upon himself to do his part and pull his line along. I thought he did a real good job. Very important."
Overall, any secondary scoring the Bruins receive is critical to their success. And Boston received plenty of it on Sunday as Trent Frederic followed up Coyle's goal with a tally of his own when he tipped home a Connor Clifton wrister from the top of the slot with 1:46 remaining in the opening frame to give Boston a 2-0 lead.
"[Jack] Studnicka, Frederic, and [Jake] DeBrusk played a hard game with the puck in the O-zone," Cassidy said of his third-line trio. "They're young guys. Sometimes young guys get light, they want to make fancy plays. I thought they did a real good job generating offense, not just off the rush but protecting pucks, supporting one another."
Cassidy also praised Frederic's overall engagement level. With goals in two of his last four games, the former first-round pick is beginning to add a bit of offense to his already established brand of grit and agitation.
"He's starting to annoy people," said Cassidy. "He's a big body that can back it up. We're seeing growth in his game. He's getting some points, he's around the puck a lot more, he's shooting more. It's a good thing for our team."

The Bruins opened up three-goal lead midway through the second when McAvoy got in on the act with a one-time blast off a feed from Pastrnak (two assists) with 9:40 remaining in the middle frame.
"We stuck together. It really felt like a must win in our room," said McAvoy. "We're not comfortable dropping games consecutively. It was good to get the result we wanted…the urgency of our team, we wanted to fix this road trip and at least finish on a high note and we were able to do that today."
Perhaps the most comforting part of the B's victory was the improvement in their defensive end. After surrendering 13 goals over the previous two games, Boston held the Rangers off the board until the 10:47 mark of the third period and limited them to just 21 shots on goal, making it a fairly easy afternoon for Tuukka Rask between the pipes.
"I thought our back end bounced back very well in terms of trying to stick to the game plan by playing North as much as possible, still making hockey plays when there's a play to be made," said Cassidy. "Obviously, Charlie and [Jakub] Zboril are two real good puck movers. But I thought the other guys did a good job staying clean."
The other guys included Steven Kampfer, who was playing in his first game of the season and paired up with Urho Vaakanainen on the B's third pair. Offseason pickup - and former Ranger - Greg McKegg also made his Bruins debut, centering the fourth line, which had Karson Kuhlman subbing in on the right side in just his third game of the year.
A victory that included contributions from everyone throughout the lineup was far more on brand for the Bruins, as they rallied together for a road trip finale performance that was reminiscent of the team that began the year 10-1-2.
"You drop a couple games, that's not us, that's not our character, especially the way the result was the last couple," said Coyle. "We wanted to use this one to our advantage, stick together, get back to our game. We've gotten away for stretches of game. We see what it can turn into.
"When we play the way we did today, we stick together - even new guys in the lineup that haven't played at all, and the way they played. To come in like that, that's huge for everyone…hats off to those guys, they played a heck of a game. That's what we need, that's our identity."