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The Boston Bruins are without two of their leaders. Zdeno Chara, the team’s captain since 2006, has been out with a knee injury since late October. David Krejci, one of the Bruins’ alternate captains, has missed the last few games with an undisclosed injury. That’s left the Bruins with two alternates, Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly, as their leaders on a nightly basis.
And while there’s no third A -- specifically one on the sweater of No. 17, Milan Lucic, a member of the Bruins’ top-six since 2008 -- there’s no doubt that he carries some of that responsibility with each shift.
Such was the case in Boston’s 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes this past Saturday, when the 6-foot-4 winger led the Bruins with hits (6) and ice time among forwards(19:39).
“It’s just one of the things of my ways of being a leader, and by establishing that physical presence. It’s important for myself to bring that every night as well,… Lucic said of his game on Saturday. “It was better from a personal standpoint as far as that goes and if that’s one of the ways – if those are one of the things that I have to do in order to lead the way I have to keep that up and keep it going.
“I think that’s probably been one of my biggest assets as far as an individual is setting the tone from a physical standpoint. Guys tend to follow when things like that happen,… continued Lucic. “I think that’s a challenge for myself is doing that night-in, night-out and being hard on myself to bring that element to my game every day, so I’ve done it for my whole career and I’ve got to just keep it up.…
This season has certainly been a frustrating one at times for Lucic. He’s taken two 10-minute misconducts by way of meltdowns in the closing moments of losses. He was involved with and subsequently fined for an incident involving some Montreal fans at the Bell Centre, and he’s been without his centerman of over four years, Krejci, for much of the season. The penalties are a part of Lucic’s game and style, and that’s widely understood by fans and those within the organization (though that doesn’t always mean they’re accepted with a smile), but the lack of production from Lucic without his Czech center has been flat out alarming.
In nine games without Krejci feeding him the puck, Lucic has not scored a goal and has just one point (he picked that up in the 6-1 loss to Toronto last week, no less). He’s also put just nine shots on net.
Those figures are not akin to that of a player you pay $6 million a year. It almost -- strike that, definitely -- goes without saying that Lucic’s linemates sans Krejci haven’t exactly been of the same caliber, though. The preference is obviously a Krejci- Jarome Iginla combo, not a Ryan Spooner-Matt Fraser combo like Lucic began the year with. The preference is obviously a Krejci-Nathan Horton combo, not a Chris Kelly-Seth Griffith combo that No. 17 has skated with for the last couple of weeks.
“When you’ve played with the same centerman for that long you read off him so easily. But also, does that mean you can’t play without a certain guy? You still got to bring your game – your A-game. So that’s how I look at things,… B’s coach Claude Julien said of Lucic after last Saturday’s victory. “When you have a player injured that compliments another player, that player still has to bring what he can.
“Looch [Milan Lucic] can skate, he can hit, bang, still make plays,… Julien said. “So you know is he going to be a better player with Krech [David Krejci]? Maybe, because of the chemistry, but right now he’s just shown us tonight that whether Krech is there or not, he’s still capable of being a good player for us.…
With Krejci, Lucic is relied upon to score goals. Without Krejci, he’s relied upon to set the tone in different ways. The latter has been a struggle, at least in terms of consistency, and Lucic knows that. He’s either too crazy, or not crazy enough.
And without Krejci, Lucic knows that he has to engage on a consistent basis.
“You’ve got to find [the emotional balance]. I’ve been kind of on that line for my whole career, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of where that line is. You want to – just because they’re working on taking cheap shots out of the game you can still finish good hard, solid checks and that’s still an important part of establishing a fore-check whether it’s our team or anyone’s team,… Lucic said. “So you’ve just got to kind of get in the right mindset where you’re not crossing the line and doing something stupid where you’re making your team go down a man. So you just want to go out there and play with that emotion and play on the line and hope that everyone follows.…
Krejci returned to practice on Monday afternoon, but his status for Tuesday’s game against St. Louis (and the season for that matter) is still undoubtedly up in the air. From what we’ve heard, Krejci’s injury isn’t one that’ll be healed with any sort of surgical procedure, but rest. It could be a situation where the top-liner is in and out of the Boston lineup. And if that’s the case, I think the Black and Gold have to tinker with the idea of putting Lucic with upper-tier talents, such as Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson.
The trio played together for a bit in the third period on Saturday -- and Lucic actually fed Soderberg a great pass that would’ve ended in a goal for No. 34 had it not been for a great save from Cam Ward -- but doesn’t sound like a combo that Julien will go with. Not until Krejci is back on the shelf, anyway.
Regardless of where he skates against the Blues on Tuesday, it seems as if Lucic knows what he has to bring to the table for himself and his team from here on out. “We’re a team that thrives off playing with high emotions and controlled emotions,… Lucic said. “We need that night-in, night-out to have success.…
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