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During David Krejci’s tenure in Boston, bigger power forwards like Milan Lucic, (6-3, 231) Nathan Horton (6-2, 229) and Jarome Iginla (6-1, 210) found success on lines with Krejci, and in turn, brought out the best in Krejci.
In just his second season in the league, the six-foot, 183 pound Jake DeBrusk is finding out how well being a power forward fits with Krejci. But over the course of those two seasons with the Bruins, he and Krejci have seen a revolving door of right wingers come and go, with the team in constant search of that next power forward.
At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Karlson Kuhlman is not the ideal body frame that comes to mind when you think of a power forward, but the energy and grit that the 23-year old brings to the table more than enough makes up for it.
After four successful seasons at Minnesota Duluth where he capped off his collegiate career with a national championship, Kuhlman signed with the Bruins least season as an undrafted free agent.
Kuhlman has just nine games under his NHL belt, but when he's been called upon, Kuhlman has jumped right in and made positive impacts on the game.
Now being asked to play top-six minutes on a line with DeBrusk and Krejci, Kuhlman is succeeding in a role that no one could have seen coming when he left Minnesota last spring.
With five points in nine games, Kuhlman continues to impress, but his play in Tuesday’s 6-2 victory over the desperate Columbus Blue Jackets was an eye opener, even the eyes of head coach Bruce Cassidy.
“I thought he was excellent tonight with his puck plays in the neutral zone, touch plays, threading the needle, being on pucks as a first forechecker,” Cassidy said Tuesday night of Kuhlman. “He's got good speed and he's a little bit underrated offensively probably. He's been a good player for us."
The success came in 14:10 of time on ice Tuesday, where Kuhlman scored his third goal of the season, and picked up his second assist of the year on DeBrusk’s second period strike.
What was impressive about Kuhlman’s efforts was the timing of it. With the Blue Jackets looking to clinch a playoff berth, the home team was treating the contest as if the NHL’s second season had already began. The bright lights and urgency in Columbus’ game didn’t seem to faze the youngster.
DeBrusk, Krejci and Kuhlman dominated as a line on a night where the Blue Jackets had a total of 53 shot attempts. The line finished with a plus-nine corsi rating, a plus-five shot differential and a plus-three goal deferential in 11:36 of 5v5 ice time.
Despite David Pastrnak’s third period tally, it was a rare off night (23.53 CF %) for the Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak line 5v5. But with how well the Krejci line carried play, it didn’t matter.
“It's very evident out there, he works really hard. Any time there's a guy that can get to those corners and use that kind of frame that he's got to get to areas, I think it helps our line,” said DeBrusk. “It was nice to see him get rewarded tonight and kind of have a pretty complete game from our side."
Now that the Bruins have locked up home-ice advantage in their first round playoff series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins will take the next few days to rest some guys, allowing some banged up bodies time to heal.
Without their full lineup in these last two regular season games, we may not know what Cassidy is thinking when it comes to how the lines will look next week when the playoffs begin.
But one thing is for sure, Kuhlman deserves the chance to play on the second line with DeBrusk and Krejci in Game 1.
In 68:21 of 5v5 ice time this season, the trio has a plus-15 corsi rating, a plus-12 shot differential and a plus-five goal differential, creating eight 5v5 goals in total.
The emergence of Kuhlman and overall success with DeBrusk and Krejci helps Cassidy with some other line combinations.
“The problem is, you bring a kid up and you don’t want to have too high expectations and then you plant him on the second line, so it’s kind of, I’ve put the high expectations on him because of that,” Cassidy said of Kuhlman.
“But I just think it’s a good fit there right now and we’re trying Johansson and Coyle and we want to stick with that for a few games, so that’s kind of where he’s landed. I thought he’s done a good job.”
In what has been one of the biggest inconsistencies all season long, the spot on the second line right wing has become Kuhlman's to lose.
100 points for Marchand
Locking up home-ice advantage and a big night for Kuhlman were not the only bright spots to come out of Columbus, as Marchand picked up points 99 and 100 with his power play goal, and assist on Pastrnak’s goal.
Marchand joins Johnny Bucyk, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Joe Juneau, Rick Middleton, Adam Oates, Bobby Orr, Barry Pederson and Joe Thornton as the only players in Bruins history to record a 100 point season.
As NBCSN pointed out last night in their well-timed graphic, Marchand’s 100 points is good enough for fifth in the NHL.
Zach Senyshyn to make NHL debut
With Bruce Cassidy electing to give some of his regulars rest in their final two games, the door has opened for some of the organization’s younger players to get a look or two. One of those being Zach Senyshyn.
The 22-year old joined the Bruins for practice in Minnesota on Wednesday and will make his NHL debut Thursday night against the Wild.
Senyshyn was drafted 15th overall by the Bruins in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft,—Matthew Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot, I know, I know—the last of three straight first round picks made by general manager Don Sweeney.
In 128 career games with the Providence Bruins, the native of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has scored just 28 goals. But at six-foot-two and with a ton of speed to offer, Senyshyn hopes to make a good impression in his first taste of NHL action.
“I think I can bring a lot of speed, and definitely my offensive game I like to bring a lot of power. Again, I like to kind of set the pace of the game,” said Senyshyn. “So hopefully I can bring a little bit of that here.”
Who gets rest, who plays?
Cassidy wasn’t too sure what the lineup would like on Thursday, but he does know for sure Chris Wagner will be getting the night off.
"He's been dealing with a lower-body, so he needs a few days off completely. Felt better [against Columbus], but still we want to get him right," said Cassidy.
Along with Wanger, Zdeno Chara, Krejci Johansson and Marchand all missed practice on Wednesday.
“The other guys it's more maintenance, nagging stuff, the lines we'll sort through. There's probably a few guys that move around. We're gonna try to keep some chemistry together and then sort it out from there."
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