Practice Report: Fourth Line Offers Blueprint for Bruins, ‘They Keep it Simple’

BOSTON –– Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly and Mark Kastelic are not worried about the flair of their game.

Instead, the Boston Bruins’ fourth line focuses on its feisty forecheck, relentless hits, dogged defense, and – when the opening presents itself, opportunistic offense.​

That was all on display on Thursday night at TD Garden, especially on Jeannot’s tally, which put the Bruins up 1-0 at the beginning of the second period. Kastelic shook up the Sabres’ breakout, throwing two hits in the offensive end, allowing Charlie McAvoy to retrieve the puck and send it back up to Jeannot, who just pushed Conor Timmins along the walls.

Kastelic and Kuraly joined Jeannot on the rush, with Kastelic shoving through the opposition to make space for Jeannot’s snap shot from the left side.

“It was a good, heavy shift. Good hits. We were playing a simple game all night long,” Jeannot said. “Nice to see one go in, but it’s about getting the win.”

​The scoring play encapsulated the way the Bruins must compete against Buffalo. It is what head coach Marco Sturm wants his entire team to embody after ultimately dropping Game 3 on Thursday, 3-1.

“The fourth line did an outstanding job last night. The last two games, I would say, it was our best line for a reason – because they keep it simple, they play hard,” Sturm said. “Now we just need to follow.”

Kastelic, Jeannot and Kuraly have combined for 28 hits, 14 shots and four blocks through the first three games of this series. They take away time and space. Most of all, they don’t overthink it. Sturm is using it as a lesson for his group.

“We definitely played simpler, I would say, in Games 1 and 2. Yesterday, it took us a while,” Sturm said. “It took us a while to get going. It shouldn’t change, because when you’re at home, you should feed off the crowd and the energy. We just have to simplify a lot of things; just keep it very simple. Because that’s more us, anyway. We’re not a fancy team, we’re really not. And that’s what we have to remind ourselves.”

Boston now has two days before Game 4 at TD Garden on Sunday afternoon. Friday was an off day for the players, with only the coaches reporting to Warrior Ice Arena to break down the tape. The B’s will get back on the ice on Saturday for a full-team skate.

“I believe it is good for us, just to have that little break and regroup. But we’ll see. They’re in the same boat, so we’ll see how it goes next game,” Sturm said. “I think by now, we know how we have to play and what works and what not. Hopefully, that day in between will help us.”

The rest is likely needed after a bruising start to the first-round series. Physicality has been an obvious theme. The Bruins have been working to strike a balance between their punishing style and staying disciplined.​

“We would love to play that way. I think the refs kind of at the beginning of the game set the tone with one of the calls there. We were trying to not go over the line and hurt our team by being in the penalty box. But it’s definitely hard because we thrive off that. But we are going to continue to try to just play on the edge,” Kastelic said. “We’re a confident bunch here, and one game doesn’t change that. We’ll have a good two days here to reset and continue to push forward.”

Resilience has been a strength of this Bruins team, evident in both the regular season and early in the playoffs. They will carry that into Game 4.

“Same mentality. Just move on. Go to the next game, start thinking about that,” Jeannot said. “We will look at the tape, see what we need to do, what we need to change and continue building our game. It’s a long series, and we’re not giving up – that’s for sure. We are going to be fighting for the home crowd again.”