It helped that Kuraly cut his hockey teeth in Boston, learning from the likes of former captains Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand during a five-season run from 2016-2021.
Those Bruins teams never took a night off. The leadership corps wouldn’t allow it. Kuraly brought that mentality to Columbus, where he grew into a leadership role himself over the last four seasons.
Kuraly wore an alternate captain’s ‘A’ for Saturday’s 4-3 preseason victory over the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. He acknowledged at camp that he often passed on lessons learned in his first run in Boston to his Blue Jackets teammates.
“I think the biggest thing is you try and take what you learned from them but also be yourself, and they taught us that. Bergy, Krech [David Krejci], David Backes, Marchy,” said Kuraly, noting that some of his former and now current teammates have followed in those leadership tracks.
“Pasta [David Pastrnak] now. And Chuckie [Charlie McAvoy], Sway [Jeremy Swayman] has a bigger role around this room — there’s a lot of other guys that I have a ton of respect for as players.”
Kuraly has enjoyed watching those younger players grow, and he’s excited about the prospects of getting everyone back on the same page as the organization looks to re-establish its identity as a hard team to play against night in and night out.
As Sweeney has pointed out, the team got away from that last season and was too often an “easy out,” something he won’t tolerate.
“I played against them in this league, and I know how hard they are to play against, and I think it’s now just about trying to get all of us to come together and pull the rope in the same direction,” said Kuraly. “And also, I learned a lot from some of my teammates in Columbus, too. I had some really good teammates in Columbus, savvy players, good people.
“So, I think each step along the way, we were just a younger team without some of the presence I had when I was here. But you just try to take little pieces along the way, and I just feel so fortunate with some of the locker rooms that I have been in.”
Kuraly has been impressed by the growth of Pastrnak and McAvoy as they ascended to leadership positions on the ice and in the room. Both continue to serve as alternate captains of a team that lost Marchand and other veteran mentors at the trade deadline in March.
“I see them as players evolving, and I know how much they shoulder [the load] for this team. And there was the exodus of huge players and people that take a lot on, and I guess just a lot of respect for all they take on for the team’s sake. And just what you’d expect of guys like them, and people like them, and players like them, and they’re still doing their thing, which is all more impressive,” he said.
Along with fellow free agents Tanner Jeannot and Mikey Eyssimont, Kuraly will be expected to, as Sweeney put it, “drag teammates into the fight” consistently.
“Well, I think our makeup kind of makes it fairly obvious for how we need to [and] want to be successful,” said Kuraly, who led the Bruins forwards with 20 shifts Saturday, with 17:10 of ice time (second to Zacha’s 17:29).
“I think it’s kind of laid out in front of us: We’re going to give you this opportunity to be successful. And you look around the room at the skillset that we have, and it seems like a pretty black-and-white blueprint for this team of how we want to be successful and how we want to play. And as a player, you’re just looking for black-and-white, clear objectives, and I think that’s what we’re looking at right now.”
Though he didn’t know much about Marco Sturm coming into the season, he has enjoyed how the new coach has run training camp and formulated a plan for the team’s identity.
“I think it’s just the makeup of the team — it’s speed, it’s simplicity, it’s straight lines, it’s routes,” said Kuraly. “We’re going to know where to be. We’re going to have very repeatable … patterns, and I think it’s going to be really black and white on how we want to advance the puck, how we want to move from zone to zone, and eventually put the puck in the net.”
Sturm said Kuraly’s presence has been needed and appreciated at camp.
“He’s an NHL player, first of all,” the coach said after the win. “He’s a great leader. He brings a lot of energy. He’s good on the faceoff. He’s one of those guys you need on your team.”
▪ Rookie Dalton Bancroft scored twice in his NHL debut. The Cornell product comes as advertised: a smart, physical player who hustles and drives to the net.
“It’s a pretty special moment, and just two goals help cap it off,” said Bancroft, who buried a power-play goal off his own deflection, and then finished off pretty net front pass from Georgii Merkulov.
▪ Jeffrey Viel prevented the dreaded preseason overtime with a nifty breakaway on Samuel Ersson late in the third.
▪ Johnny Beecher was gifted a goal with 1 second left in the first period. Flyers winger Alex Bump fumbled the puck circling behind his own net, and Beecher pounced and tucked the puck past an unsuspecting Ersson.
After a rough game against the Rangers, Beecher bounced back with a solid effort playing with Kuraly and Mark Kastelic.
“Yeah, got [the Rangers game] out of my head a little bit tonight,” said Beecher. “I just went out there and played hockey.
“I thought me, Kurals and Kasty, we were going pretty good, and we were just playing a simple game, and it seemed to work so much more pleased with the effort tonight.”
▪ Tough night for the Xfinity Mobile Arena PR announcer, who had trouble with some of the Bruins names, including Merkulov, which was pronounced Grigori Merchkov.
▪ The Flyers held a moment of silence for two-time Stanley Cup and Vezina Trophy winner Bernie Parent, who passed away Sept. 21. The Hall of Famer played his first two seasons for the Bruins but was snatched by the Flyers in the 1967 expansion draft.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.