After being outscored 13-4 in two consecutive ugly losses, head coach Bruce Cassidy called out his team, sending a message that their efforts would not be accepted and they simply needed to be better.

That message was driven further when the team claimed defenseman Jarred Tinordi off waivers from the Nashville Predators.

Even with the addition of Tinordi, the message was reinforced Sunday as Greg McKegg, Steven Kampfer and Karson Kuhlman were all inserted to the Bruins lineup. They came in to replace Anders Bjork, John Moore and Chris Wagner.

The message sent by Cassidy and his coaching staff was heard, heard loud and clear as the Bruins bounced back Sunday with a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers.

Right from the drop of the puck, the Bruins got back to what has made them successful throughout the season to date.

They were physical, they won the 50/50 puck battles, they capitalized on their chances, snubbed out the chances generated by the Rangers and got timely saves from Tuukka Rask.

"We get the result more times than not when we play that way. You could see it every shift, guys doing their job, playing their role, plays into our identity and that's huge. It's fun to play that way, it's fun to get the result,” said Charlie Coyle who had a pair of goals in the victory.

“That's Bruins hockey for us. When we play that way, I think we have more fun and you see our work pay off, and we're a hard team to play against.”

While Cassidy sent a message to his players inside the dressing room, the Bruins wanted to send a message to the Rangers from the start. After the Rangers bullied the Bruins around Madison Square Garden Friday night, the Bruins responded with one of their most physical 60-minutes of the season.

The hits came early and often, totaling 43 in all, and led by Sean Kuraly with six and Brad Marchand with five.

When Marchand and Patrice Bergeron both laid big hits on Rangers’ defenseman Ryan Lindgren on the game’s opening shift, it was clear the Bruins were ready to answer Cassidy’s message.

"They're the leaders of this team so they need to set the standard in a lot of different ways," said Cassidy. "That's what we wanted to do the first shift and carry that over. When your leaders sort of bring that message or carry through the staff's messaging then it's a trickle-down effect.

Charlie McAvoy

When the Bruins decided Zdeno Chara was no longer in their future plans, they were essentially investing even more in Charlie McAvoy, making him the unquestionably the team’s No. 1 defensemen.

He’s taken the role and ran with it.

What’s made McAvoy so special this season has been his play in all three zones, showing that he’s developed into a game changing defenseman.

McAvoy scored his third goal of the season in the victory, and also picked up his 12th assist of the season on Coyle’s opening strike. But it was his shutdown defense once again that was the story of the contest.

“I always want to be a part of it, it’s not selective in that matter. I always want to show up and do whatever I can to help our team and that’s my approach, that’s my mindset every game,” McAvoy said. “It’s good to get the result today and obviously the urgency of our team was that we wanted to fix this road trip, at least finish on a high note. We were able to do that today, that was great.”

In the 18:43 of five-on-five ice time McAvoy had on Sunday, the Bruins held the edge in shot attempts 31-9.

Jack Studnicka

Even with the Bruins putting together forgettable losses earlier in the week, Jack Studnicka continues to be a bright spot for the Bruins.

Since David Krejci was lost to injury in their loss to the New Jersey Devils earlier this month, Cassidy moved Stucnicka to the middle, putting him in his natural position as a centerman.

In those four games, we’ve seen a completely different Studnicka, one that has been all over the puck, looking like a completely different player.

While he hasn’t scored in those four games, Studnicka has done everything but it. He’s getting to the dirty areas, setting up his linemates for high-danger scoring chances and playing a safe two-way game.

In those four games since being moved back to center, Studnicka has an individual expected goals for percentage of 1.41 at all strengths.

On Sunday Studnicka once again centered Trent Frederic and Jake DeBrusk, earning high praises from Cassidy.

"Studnicka, Frederic, and DeBrusk played a hard game with the puck in the O-zone," Cassidy said. "They're young guys. Sometimes young guys get light, they want to make fancy plays. I thought they did a real good job generating offense, not just off the rush but protecting pucks, supporting one another."

Trent Frederic

The more and more comfortable Frederic gets, the more and more productive he’s been. Frederic is certainly not shy on the ice. He drives to the net, gets himself into the mix of things and certainly has no issues letting players of the other team know how he feels about them.

What he is doing for the Bruins right now is extremely similar to what Brad Marchand did in his early days as a Bruin, grinding shifts out on the fourth line.

"He's starting to annoy people," said Cassidy. "He's a big body that can back it up. We're seeing growth in his game. He's getting some points, he's around the puck a lot more, he's shooting more. It's a good thing for our team."

Frederic potted his second goal of the season Sunday by driving to the net and getting a stick on a Connor Clifton point shot.

While scoring a key first period goal and bouncing back with two key points was all part of a hard day’s work at the office for Frederic, it was what didn’t happen that left him hungry for more.

As the clock hit triple zero and the buzzer sounded, Nick Ritchie and Brendan Lemieux exchanged an unpleasant goodbye. As much as Frederic enjoyed his front row view of the fight, he was a little jealous he wasn’t the one dancing with Lemieux, or “No. 48” as he calls him.

“Yeah, hopefully, I get another shot at … uh … uh … No. 48,” Frederic said.

“I don’t have enough goals for him, I guess, so we’ll see.”

With his goal Sunday, Frederic has one goal more this season that Lindgren does in 84 career NHL games.

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