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The Bruins' first and fourth lines shine in the win over the Canadiens

The Bruins' first and fourth lines shine in the win over the Canadiens

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BOSTON – The Bruins rebounded magnificently from their opening loss to the Panthers on Thursday night, giving the home fans an offensive show in their home opener. Boston put in a great performance from their top team a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadienswhich was only dwarfed by the Bruins' fourth line.

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

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

The top line was at it again early in the second period when Pavel Zacha delivered a nice pass to David Pastrnak in the slot for a one-timer. Pasta ended the game with a dirty wrist slap, giving Boston a 4-2 lead.

Lindholm finished his first game in front of his new Boston fans with a goal and two assists. Pastrnak scored one goal on six shots and one assist, while Zacha had one assist on two shots. The line was aggressive and fast and created a lot of traffic in front of the net.

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

Lindholm was pleased with the lead group's performance, but said overall it was just a “decent” evening for the group.

“That’s how we want to play in the first period,” Lindholm told reporters after the win. “We played really well and in the second half we were able to control the game a little bit. We held back too much in the third, but overall it was a decent game from our side.”

Boston's top line was a little better than fair on Thursday night, but the team's fourth line could be even better. Mark Kastelic scored two goals, Cole Koepke added one to go and two assists, and Johnny Beecher had a helper as the team tallied six points. The trio also set the tone with their physicality and delivered seven hits.

It was Kastelic who got things started after the Canadiens took a 2-1 lead in the first thanks to a dominant and ferocious shift from the fourth line. It ended with the center defeating top player Cayden Primeau and the game was 2-2.

After Lindholm and Pastrnak did their thing, Koepke joined the scoring fun with his first goal as a Bruin, sinking a rebound to give Boston a 5-2 lead. The fourth line prevailed again after Montreal cut the score to 5-4 with 4:17 to play when Kastelic's pass to Beecher was deflected into the net by a Canadien, giving Boston a 6-4 lead. This happened after Koepke took a hit to get the puck into the offensive zone.

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

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

Montgomery said Thursday night that his fourth line's contributions and style of play have been “huge.”

“Kastelic scored 47 goals in a season in junior hockey, so that’s something he can do. And it was just nice to see how hard they hit the net,” Montgomery said. “Like the Koepke goal, it’s Johnny Beecher putting the puck into the net with full force. And on Kastelic’s first goal, Koepke originally brought the puck into the net with full force, which created that offensive zone time.”

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

“We feel like we want to do more given the speed and the size of our team,” Montgomery said. “It’s not easy, 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 something to be desired for a second straight game to start the 2024-25 season. But Boston's offense showed tremendous improvement since opening night, helping to erase the sour taste left over from the team's visit to Florida on Tuesday.

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