Boston Bruins: 3 takeaways from 5-4 comeback shootout win over Flyers

2. Ondrej Kase shouldn’t be guaranteed a spot in the Boston Bruins’ lineup when he’s healthy.

After being apart of arguably Boston’s best line in the playoffs with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk, head coach Bruce Cassidy wouldn’t move Ondrej Kase from this line. However, with Kase going down with an upper-body injury, Cassidy was forced to mix up the lineup.

Although this doesn’t seem like a good thing for a team to be missing its top two right wings, mixing up the lineup has been extremely beneficial for the B’s play at 5-on-5.

Despite the first period of the first game of the season, the Bruins play at 5-on-5 had been abysmal with Kase in the lineup. With Kase out of the lineup over the last two games, the team’s 5-on-5 play has been much better.

DeBrusk has been somewhat revived playing on the first line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, and Studnicka has meshed well on the second line with Ritchie and Krejci as he doesn’t have to go up against top lines like he had to while on the first line.

Furthermore, the third line of Anders Bjork, Coyle, and Craig Smith has been finding chemistry and was the best line of the game for the Black and Gold last night. Moreover, the fourth line of Trent Frederic, Sean Kuraly, and Chris Wagner continued their solid play.

With the B’s offense finally finding their stride, I just don’t think it would make sense to insert Kase if the team is still playing well and scoring. So far in his Bruins tenure, Kase has been more of a liability than an asset and shouldn’t be guaranteed a spot in the lineup if he’s not going to produce.

Guys like Ritchie and Studnicka are playing better than he was on his line, so unless Cassidy wants to slot him in for Bjork on the third line or for Wagner on the fourth line, Kase shouldn’t be in the lineup if Boston is scoring and winning.