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On the heels of an ultra-frustrating shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night, the Boston Bruins were in need of some good news. They got it on Wednesday, too, with the word that top-line center David Krejci, out of commission with a partially torn MCL in his left knee since Feb. 20, will be joining the Bruins for their three-game road swing that begins Thursday night in Ottawa.
“He’s progressing well,… B’s coach Claude Julien said on Tuesday. “Is he a possibility for the weekend? I think the earliest would probably be the weekend. The earliest, and maybe even more.…
Krejci still needs to be cleared for both contact and gameplay, but that could come this weekend, too.
“Depending on how he progresses it could be both,… Julien said of that next hurdle. “It could be for contact or it could be as close as maybe for games. Maybe he’ll just start contact then.
“It depends how he comes out of these next few days here.…
With 18-year-old David Pastrnak given the day off with what the Bruins are calling a maintenance day, Krejci was a participant in practice on Wednesday, skating as the right winger on a line with Milan Lucic and Krejci’s interim replacement, Ryan Spooner.
Krejci doesn’t look like he’ll be ready for Thursday’s pivotal head-to-head with the Senators, who trail the Bruins by just four points for the final wild card spot in the East (with a game in hand, too), but if he’s ready for the weekend back-to-back in Florida and Tampa Bay, the question then becomes who takes a seat for a B’s squad that’s won seven of their last 10 (and eight of 12 since Krejci’s injury.)
It’s something that’s crossed Julien’s mind, too, but nothing he’s overly worried about just yet.
“I’ve thought about it I haven’t made up my mind where and stuff like that. Instead of starting to speculate stuff like that, I could tell something today and may change my mind tomorrow,… Julien said. “I’ve thought about it and it’s not easy. Guys that are in the lineup are playing well. You have to make a good decision. It’s not a decision that I think I’m ready to make today, but certainly thinking about it.…
It’s admittedly crazy that we’re sitting here and wondering just how the Bruins can fit Krejci -- a player that’s twice led the Stanley Cup Playoffs in scoring (2011 and 2013) -- back into the lineup with hurting the chemistry the Black and Gold are skating with right now, but it’s a legitimate concern.
The Lucic-Spooner-Pastrnak trio has undoubtedly given No. 17 a newfound spark, while it’d be tough for the Bruins to separate Spooner and Pastrnak once you factor in the spark they’ve found (with speed, too). The Bruins depend on the Bergeron line to shut the opposition down, so breaking them up, even with Reilly Smith slumping to insane degrees of late, seems like a non-starter for Julien, and the Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson line was an absolute force against Buffalo on Tuesday night.
But where Krejci skated on Wednesday’s practice, on the wing of a line with Lucic and Spooner, could be the best case scenario for Krejci and the B’s upon his return. Although Krejci’s been a center throughout his NHL career, the B’s have used Krejci as a wing on that top line before (all the way back in Feb. 2012), and have looked at that switch as a short-term fix. It also allows Krejci, ailing knee and all, to ease his way back into his skating game as a winger opposed to the heavy-duty minutes of a center.
Why this move seems to make the most sense, though, is what it’d allow the B’s to do with Pastrnak.
When you look at the Czech winger’s body of work in 2014-15, it’s impossible to not be impressed, no doubt. But between Boston and Providence, Pastrnak’s played 58 pro games. Before this season, Pastrnak had never played more than 36 games (last year with Sodertalje SK). And at the world’s highest level of competition, Pastrnak has dealt with the bumps and bruises that come with going against fully grown men. The possibility of the 170-pounder hitting a wall is very much real, and in all likelihood, an inevitability for Pastrnak and the B’s. It happened to former Bruin Blake Wheeler when he made the jump from the NCAA to the NHL in 2008-09 (he finished the year with seven points in the final 18 regular season games and zero points in eight playoff games), and should be a concern for a Black and Gold squad that’s simply loved the instant contributions from No. 88.
Dressing Krejci in his place, while delivering a blow to the Bruins’ overall speed, could be the necessary plug that the Bruins use to keep Pastrnak fresh for a postseason run that’ll surely require his skill.
At the same time, the Bruins haven’t exactly hated putting Pastrnak against bigger NHLers.
“I think that’s just a small part of the equation. I think there’s more to it than that to be honest with you. It’s more than that, I’ll put it that way,… Julien admitted before Tuesday night’s game. “Right now they’ve handled themselves well whoever I’ve put them on so far and I’ve been able to manage that fairly well I think by looking at their production, they haven’t been on a line that’s been scored on a lot. I think that might be a little bit part of the equation but certainly not the biggest part.…
Another option, though I’d consider this one more of a longshot, would involve the Bruins toying with the idea of putting Krejci on the wing with Eriksson and Soderberg on the B’s third line.
Soderberg, who had vision issues due to blindness in his left eye, is a center. Period. The Bruins have tried him at the wing before, and the production has suffered. And while No. 34 is in the midst of a 24-game goal drought, the Bruins (and Soderberg himself) prefer to see him at center. That’d put Krejci on either the right or left wing, and Eriksson (who can play both), to the opposite wing. It could be a way to get Soderberg out of his recent slide, and would allow Chris Kelly to slide down to that fourth line, and bump one of either Danny Paille or Gregory Campbell out of the lineup as a healthy scratch.
If you ask me, Krejci could bring an extra (but perhaps more importantly, calming) offensive element to that Eriksson-Soderberg combination, which already feasts against weaker competition, and would have a ripple effect on the Bruins’ fourth line, which has looked its best this season with Kelly at center.
There’s no shortage of options for the Bruins when it comes to plugging No. 46, and though it won’t be an easy one for Julien, Krejci’s willingness to play ‘anywhere’ certainly seems to help. That, and a resume that includes 404 NHL points, including 26 in 38 games this year, anyways.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com