Bruins Notes: Boston’s Fourth Line Came Up ‘Huge’ In Win Vs. Canadiens

BOSTON — The Bruins needed to have a better effort in their home opener against the Montreal Canadiens after dropping their first game of the 2024-25 season. The Black and Gold scored four straight goals and staved off a third period push to defeat their Original Six rivals 6-4 on Thursday night.

“I thought we won a lot more battles, all three zones and play it faster,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said of the team’s effort. “I think we can see the kind of team we can be. We’ve got to become a better checking team and understand game management a little bit better. I didn’t think our game management was exemplary in the third, but it’s hard to win in this league. We got our first win. We just keep building now.”

Boston got an offensive boost from its fourth line of Johnny Beecher, Mark Kastelic and Cole Koepke. The trio tallied a combined six points with a pair of goals from Kastelic and another from Koepke.

“It was huge. I think Kastelic scored 45 or 48 goals in junior hockey. So, it’s something he can do,” Montgomery said. “It was just nice to see how hard they went to the net. The Koepke goal, that’s Johnny Beecher taking it hard to the net. And that first Kastelic goal, Koepke originally took the puck hard to the net, which created that offensive zone time.”

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

“It feels really good, I mean it just feels good to contribute to the team’s success and getting on the score sheet is always a good feeling,” Kastelic said. “It was really fun playing with my (linemates) tonight. I think we’re starting to build our games together and get more comfortable with each other. It’s starting to pay off.”

The fourth line size — Beecher is 6-foot-3, 216 pounds, Kastelic stands at 6-foot-4, 226 pounds and Koepke is no slouch at 6-foot-1, 204 pounds — is an enormous advantage when they are driving to the front of the net.

“I think we play with a lot of speed and we all got pretty good size,” Kastelic said. “So, if we can get it to the net and cause some chaos a lot of times, good things will happen. … I think that we were all on the same page and we were taking the puck to the net. We’re playing with a lot speed and it’s a team that’s hard to contain and a team that’s playing on a back-to-back, we were able to capitalize on them. We got a lot of success tonight.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Canadiens game:

— The Bruins got plenty of production from their offseason signings with four goals and six assists. Elias Lindholm and Koepke each had a three-point night with a goal and two assists a piece.

— Nikita Zadorov recorded two assist, passing the 100-assist milestone in the win.

— Jeremy Swayman made his season debut after inking an eight-year extension Sunday. The Bruins goaltender made 20 saves in the win and even challenged Montreal forward Nick Suzuki in the second period after the Canadiens captain got too close to the paint.

— Boston improved to 14-0-1 in their last 15 games against Montreal. The Original Six rivals met for the 761st time with the Bruins holding a 295-353-103-11 record. Boston improved to 176-142-56-7 lifetime against Montreal at home with a 1,125-1,029 scoring advantage in those 381 contests.

— The Bruins continue their three-game homestand Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Kings in a matinee matchup. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 1 p.m ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pre- and postgame coverage on NESN.