COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sean Kuraly just can’t help himself in these playoff games.
They are so much fun to the fourth-line center that he becomes a bigger scoring threat than he is during the regular season, and Kuraly kicked in a goal against his hometown Columbus Blue Jackets in Boston’s 4-1 win in Game 4 at Nationwide Arena. In doing it he became the very first Ohio-born player to score against the Blue Jackets in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and more importantly added a third-period insurance goal that essentially iced the game for the Bruins.
Then he banged the glass in celebration loudly enough that everybody could hear it all the way up in the press box.
“I found one,” said Kuraly, when asked if he was looking for somebody in a Bruins jersey to celebrate his goal in enemy Blue Jackets territory. “I banged [on the glass] to let him know I saw him there.”
Kuraly now has two goals and three points in seven playoff games for the B’s this spring since coming back from injury midway through the Toronto series, and has a whopping six goals and nine points in 23 career playoff games.
“He brings it every night,” said Brad Marchand of Kuraly. “He’s one of those guys that’s always trying to improve his game. He works extremely hard to improve himself, and when it’s time to play he plays extremely hard, he’s fast and he can kind of do it all. At playoff time you need your depth and you need all four lines going. He’s been a big reason we’re in the position that we’re in. He’s been big for our group and he’s scored some big goals. He’s not nervous in those big situations.”
That essentially makes Kuraly a 20-goal scorer once the games move to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and gives the Bruins somebody they can rely on for secondary offense from their bottom-6 during the big moments.
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“Great hockey roots,” said Bruce Cassidy jokingly, when asked by an Ohio reporter where the Dublin, Ohio-born Kuraly gets his clutch abilities from. “I don’t know. He just seems to have a knack for the moment. There’s always a few of those guys this time of year. His numbers certainly seem to translate higher in the playoffs than they do during the regular season.”
Kuraly himself continues to just enjoy the ride, and that is doubly so playing against a Blue Jackets team he cheered for growing up as a kid. It’s making his return to his Columbus roots all the more special in this Stanley Cup Playoffs series, and perhaps is even nudging a little more energy and performance out of an already established big game player.
“I kind of sometimes find myself getting lost in some of these games that are important and just enjoying them really. Sometimes you just find yourself [simply] playing hockey again and you forget about what’s going on,” said Kuraly.
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So why is this happening for him? It's certainly about mentally being unfazed by the big moment, but it's also about the size, strength and skating ability that goes along with his constant high motor. Kuraly is a handful for other teams when he's skating fast and throwing his body around with reckless abandon.
The Bruins just have to hope that Big Game Kuraly keeps getting lost in these important playoff games because it’s working, and because his reputation as a clutch player is growing as well.
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