Kuraly potted his first goal in 31 games on Saturday afternoon, burying a rebound off a Ritchie shot with 3:22 left in the first period to give Boston a 2-1 lead. Ritchie followed up in the third period with a tally of his own when he tipped home a Matt Grzelcyk point shot to extend the Bruins advantage to 4-1.
"I think the reaction says it all there," Kuraly said of his goal celebration. "It feels good…there's a lot of other things you try to take pride in…but you can tell by my reaction how that one felt."
With Charlie Coyle snapping his extended goalless streak on Thursday night, all three members of Boston's new-look third line now have goals over the past two games. While moving Coyle to the wing is not Cassidy's preferred option, he does like the heavier nature of the trio with all three of them checking in at 6-foot-2 or above.
"It's early. But I like the fact that we've been trying to build a bigger third line for the majority of the year," said Cassidy. "For a while there it was Coyle, Frederic and Smith, right? But injuries happen. People get shuffled around. We added some real good pieces at the deadline, so you sort of rethink where they're going to best fit. And Coyle moving to the wing goes against what we've kind of tried to do here, is have him, one, two, three and then Kuraly four.
"But listen, you do what you have to do to put the best lineup together and find chemistry. Right now, with Ritchie, they're big bodies. And if they continue to sort of play in behind teams, be hard, recover pucks, they're going to be hard to play against. Everyone has a goal the last two games. We'll see if we can keep it going."
Cassidy was particularly pleased to see Kuraly get on the board after a lengthy scoring drought that included some time as a healthy scratch earlier this season.
"There was a time in the year where we sat down with Sean…don't lose your identity," said Cassidy. "[Curtis] Lazar came in and [Taylor] Hall obviously. So, we moved him to the wing with Lazar and [Chris] Wagner…all of a sudden, a few changes of scenery for everybody and you find yourself on a line that maybe could work best for you in the now. We'll see how it does going forward.
"I think with Sean, we've moved him up at different times. As long as he doesn't lose his identity of what he is, not trying to be something you're not, just play in straight lines and understand how you can get your offense…we've always liked Sean here. Had a lot of loyalty to him as a player. Been a good playoff player for us."