The Bruins’ 4-2 win in Chicago featured some of the old David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand magic, a pleasant enough blast from the past for coach Joe Sacco to keep them together throughout the game and in Friday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena.

But if Sacco is to continue loading up one line with his two best offensive players, then the new second line of Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie and Justin Brazeau needs to pull its weight offensively like it did in Chicago when Brazeau assisted on a pair of Geekie goals.

One would think that the top line would able to produce at some level, but the Brazeau-Zacha-Geekie trio still has to prove itself.

“Secondary scoring is important,” said Sacco on Friday. “For us right now offensively, that was a big boost for us last game. Moving forward here we need that. We just can’t rely on one line or a few players offensively to carry the load. We need that secondary. We got it last game and hopefully that continues.”

When the season started, few observers would have pegged the B’s second line to consist of Zacha, Geekie and Brazeau and maybe it won’t last beyond the first periods against the Flyers on Saturday. Who knows? But with the B’s leaning into the heaviness that they have on the roster, the vision is that the unit can grind out production while still holding the opposition’s top line at bay.

“With Pav in the middle, they need to be responsible defensively still because they’re going to see some top lines, depending on if its a home game or an away game,” said Sacco of what he believes the line’s identity can be. “But I just see a comfort level. Braz is a guy that can protect pucks down low for them, hang on to pucks below the tops of the circles. I’d like to see a little more possession time from that line. And you have guys who can find the back of the net when they’re confident. Geeks got a couple last game. Pav can get streaky and with Braz I just want to see him being involved in the net front, controlling pucks down low, hanging on to it, creating some more zone time.”

After hitting a career-high 17 goals last season, there was hope that Geekie could help make up for the loss of Jake DeBrusk this season. But he got off to a very slow start. Even though he checking well enough to stay on a top line with Zacha and Pastrnak, goals were not coming easily.

His two goals in Chicago were just his third and fourth. Both of them were assisted by Brazeau, the first one coming in the midst of a line change before the units were switched and the second came on a nice spring pass.

“I feel like I’ve been all around it, just haven’t been able to put one in so it’s nice to get two for sure,” said Geekie. “But a big game (Saturday) and big road trip coming up so we’ll try to keep it going.”

Geekie is one player who readily admits he sees and hears everything out there. And with the start he had, he was bound to see some criticism.

Last week, someone posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that not only did Geekie not belong on the first line but that he should be removed from the team make room for one of a younger player.

Geekie responded, “Damn bro tell me how you really feel.”

All in good fun, sort of.

“Twitter’s a place for everyone’s opinion. If they can voice theirs I feel like I can voice mine,” said Geekie. “It is what it is. I guess it’s a little bit of motivation, but nothing too much. I’ve had my fair share of replies back to people and I think lots of people on there think we’re above everybody else but we’re just normal people. I’ve got Twitter, I’ve got Instagram. We see that stuff. It’s something we get to deal with in adversity like that, with comments being made. It’s not something I ever take to heart. It’s pretty lighthearted, the interactions.”

Meanwhile, Pastrnak, who has a had a decidedly off year when it come to his bread and butter (goalscoring), appeared to have some of the old joy in his game in Chicago, something that has fueled him in the past.

The first goal he assisted on came off a beautiful st play off a faceoff. Lindholm won thee draw back to Andrew Peeke, who dished it over to Mason Lohrei at the left point. Pastrnak had circled around the net and back out on the left side to take Lohrei’s feed and make a perfect seam pass to Marchand for the one-timer goal.

“It’s been a while since we actually connected and played together,” said Pastrnak. “For me, that changed the game last game. Both lines got going and sometimes that’s what you need.”

They’ll need more of it in the immediate future. The Flyers have played well enough lately to put themselves in striking distance of a playoff spot and then next week the B’s embark upon of five-game Western Conference swing (Winnipeg, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton) on which four of the five teams were on a playoff spot as of Friday. The B’s are 6-2 under Sacco but have yet to beat a team inside the playoff bracket, so we’re about to see what this team is actually made of.