The Boston Bruins' fourth line of Danton Heinen, Johnny Beecher and Oskar Steen put together the best collective performance on the team in Boston's 3-2 win against the Dallas Stars. A deep dive into their production:
The Boston Bruins' fourth line of Danton Heinen, Johnny Beecher and Oskar Steen put together the best collective performance on the team in Boston's 3-2 win against the Dallas Stars. A deep dive into their production:
The Boston Bruins righted the ship on Monday, beating the Dallas Stars 3-2 after falling to the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 two days prior. Thanks to a 35-save effort from Jeremy Swayman and goals from Johnny Beecher and Mason Lohrei, the first of their NHL career for each, Boston improved to 10-1-1 against one of the best Western Conference teams.
While those three players received the spotlight, and rightfully so, the entire fourth line – Oskar Steen, Danton Heinen and Beecher – deserves just as much credit.
The fourth line is typically filled with the team’s unsung heroes. Whether it’s a shutdown line or just fringe roster players trying to earn more minutes, the fourth line typically is not a major reason why a team wins, but it was on Monday.
“Just how they pushed the puck into the offensive zone,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters about what he liked from Beecher and Co. “Or if it started there, they held it there, they kept it there, and they showed a lot of poise hanging on to pucks, making plays.”
At 5-on-5 play, the Heinen-Beecher-Steen line was Boston’s only line that outshot Dallas while they were on the ice (4-0), and the three forwards posted the team’s three highest GameScore via HockeyStatCards and The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn, with Steen tying Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen with a game-high 2.33.
They also produced Boston’s first two goals, with Beecher doing most of the work himself on the opening tally. After collecting the puck off the end boards, Beecher rotated around the right face-off circle before finding the space to uncork a wrister past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger at 10:21 of the first period.
“I just kind of picked up a little rebound there,” Beecher said. “I was kind of looking to go low to high, and they just kind of cut it off right away, so I just kind of took my space and tried to get it off as quick as I could.”
The play only developed because of the pressure Steen and defenseman Ian Mitchell applied deep in the Stars’ zone, which carried over through most of the game.
“[Beecher] did a great job on the forecheck, the entire line did,” Montgomery said. “Got the turnover and then they made something happen going to the net.”
The fact that this performance came without two of the regular fourth-liners – Milan Lucic (lower body) and Jakub Lauko (facial fracture) – was a bigger testament to the depth that made the training camp roster battle as closely contested as it was.
The leadership value of Lucic and long term potential of Lauko can’t be understated, and both are expected to return to their original roles once healthy, but if Heinen and Steen continue to play this way, that bottom six roster battle could be resparked.
“My line played fantastic tonight and helped me get a couple opportunities,” Beecher said. “So it was good.”