There’s something about the bright lights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that bring out the best of certain hockey players.
David Krejci is one of those players.
“Obviously, we all love playoff Krech [Krejci], he’s unbelievable,” said Krejci’s countrymate David Pastrnak. “So much experience and his hockey patience is incredible.”
Playoff Krejci really is a thing.
It was a thing in 2011 when he led the playoffs in points with 23 as the Bruins captured Lord Stanley’s Cup. It was a thing in 2013 when he once again led the playoffs in points with 26. And through eight playoff games in 2020, it’s a thing again as Krejci leads the team with nine playoff points.
“Well I've learned that he's a big-time player. I've seen it in the playoffs now every year I've been here. Don't over analyze maybe some regular season games at times if he's not put in key situations,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said.
“You can always talk to him about the game and get good responses and good dialogue and a guy that loves the game, he just doesn't show it maybe like some other people would because he is kind of more of a composed guy that way, but certainly one of the more fiercer competitors in terms of inner drive that I've been around here.”
With the Bruins trailing 1-0 in the second period of Wednesday’s Game 5, Krejci worked his playoff magic yet again. Although his power play goal was more of a case of being in the right place at the right time, it was a momentum swinging goal, the first of the two the Bruins would need in Game 5, winning their series with the Hurricanes 4-1.
As the Bruins cleanly entered the attacking zone with the puck, Krejci drove to the net, seemingly unnoticed by the four Hurricanes skaters on the ice. When Patrice Bergeron’s shot took a fortunate bounce off of the foot of David Pastrnak and to the far post, Krejci was there for the easy tap-in.
“Krech likes that elbow where Pasta is so you got to put him on the other one, it’s a different look for him,” said Cassidy. And then March moves off his elbow into the net front where you going to take a little more of a pounding, so they had to be willing to do that. I mean we had a pretty good power play as it is the other way, but this is a way to get Krech more involved.”
Krejci was very much involved in the series and a key reason as to why the Bruins are advancing to the second round, bouncing back from an ugly 0-3 performance in round-robin play.
“I can’t even tell how good of a player he is. He always seems like he makes a great play. Just when you think he’s going to lose it, he always finds a way to recover and make a great play,” said Pastrnak. “Great power play. We scored some big goals and obviously Krech was a big key on the power play.”
Krejci’s elevated play seemed to naturally elevate the play of linemates Jake DeBrusk and Ondrej Kase as the line was the Bruins best in the series.
In the 55:16 of five-on-five ice time the Krejci line saw against the Hurricanes in the series, the Bruins had advantages in:
Shot attempts 57-46
Shots 27-20
Scoring chances 27-23
High danger goals 2-0
Goals 3-2
“I think the team after the round robin, I think we turned the page and we just played our game. We had that great game plan, we knew exactly what to do, how to beat these guys,” said Krejci.
“We stuck with it. And all four lines, they chipped in. Every game was a different line. That’s what you need in the playoffs. Every game, somebody else steps up. That was huge.”
If the Bruins are to continue and go on a run inside the bubble, they’re going to need continued contributions from all four lines.
You know what you’re going to get from the Bergeron line, but if the Krejci line can be a dangerous scoring line like they were against Carolina, ousting the Bruins in a seven game series won’t be an easy task.
Part of what makes the Bruins such a tough team to get past in the playoffs is their veteran leadership. It begins with captain Zdeno Chara, and continues through players like Bergeron, Marchand and Krejci, among others.
Being is this situation countless times as a core group, going into Wednesday’s contest the Bruins knew getting that fourth and final win of the series would be the most difficult one yet.
But once again, that veteran leadership kicked in.
“I think we’re well aware that this is the hardest game to get. We know that the opposing teams are going to throw everything at us and try to stay in the series. We’ve been there before in both situations and we know that those are the toughest and you need to make sure you take care of business and not let this drag,” said Bergeron.
“This is kind of a unique situation, the bubble. We obviously wanted to finish it off today though. Those are the hardest ones to get. We knew we didn’t want to come back here tomorrow and play back-to-back,” said Krejci.
“We’ll take the win and happy that we don’t have to come back here tomorrow.”
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