New chapter with this Torey
Krug bounces back
OTTAWA — Torey Krug was looking for a bounceback game last night and he seemed to get it with a pair of assists in the Bruins’ 5-0 drubbing of the Ottawa Senators.
This comes on the heels of Thursday’s disappointment in Washington, where the defenseman was benched during the third period and overtime in a shootout loss to the Capitals.
One of coach Bruce Cassidy’s chief concerns was Krug’s gap control — allowing opposing forwards too much time and space to make plays in front of him.
Krug expected it to be an easy fix.
“Yeah, it is. You’ve got to be conscious of it, but the way that I play, the way that I skate, you just have to make sure you’re better with it and I’ll definitely make sure I’ll do my best to fix that problem,” Krug said after yesterday’s morning skate.
The benching during regulation play might have been mildly surprising, but more so during the 3-on-3 overtime, which is one of Krug’s specialties. Krug admitted his game may have slipped imperceptibly to him, though he obviously wasn’t thrilled sitting out the overtime.
“You don’t notice it until someone points it out,” he said. “You still feel like you can contribute and help the team win and when the team goes into OT, you still want to be out there and help the team win and you feel like you can. It’s a little upsetting, but it is what it is and you’ve just got to move on.”
There was a lot to like about Krug’s response against the Senators as he was more assertive in his 17:28 of ice time.
“I thought he had lots of jump. He was up, he was killing plays, moving his feet,” said Cassidy. “I don’t think it was as big of an issue between the two of us (as it was made out to be). It was a decision we made the other day. Torey’s played lots of minutes. I think he’s averaging over 20 minutes, so he’s a big part of our hockey club.
“That’s the type of game he can play,” Cassidy added. “Like everyone else, he’ll have his moments when he’s better than others, but tonight he played the style of play we were hoping for him, and that’s use your feet and stick and hockey IQ to break up plays, not sit back and wait for the game to come to you.”
What next for Bjork?
Center David Krejci returned to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury.
With Krejci on the ice, rookie forward Anders Bjork sat out for the second time in eight games. If Krejci had not gone down, Bjork may not have returned so quickly to the lineup following his first healthy scratch on Dec. 16.
Cassidy did not want to speculate about Bjork possibly going down to Providence, but it seems inevitable if he remains a scratch much longer.
“I think every young kid, if they’re not getting a lot of minutes, usually benefits. Usually,” Cassidy said. “Anders made it here because he earned his way. Now that we’re healthy, we’ve created that competition. I believe this is the second time he’s sat. I thought he’s played OK of late.
“The other day, with the special teams, I may have lost him a little in the lineup because he wasn’t part of either one. Then the road matchups are always a little more difficult to control. Those are the factors into it. He’s doing the things we’re asking for the most part, he’s just learning on the fly. Some nights he doesn’t get as many minutes as others. When we’re at home, it’s a little easier to control who he’s out against so he usually gets more.”
Powerful alterations
With the return of Krejci, Cassidy tweaked the team’s power-play units. Danton Heinen took Ryan Spooner’s spot on the first unit at the half wall and Spooner dropped down to the second group with Krejci while Matt Grzelcyk got bumped out of the mix.
After Spooner scored from David Backes and Krejci on the first power play, Cassidy deployed that unit first on the next two manup opportunities . . . .
David Pastrnak went through a stretch last year during which he didn’t score a goal for 17 games. Last night was his ninth straight game without a goal.
“I think he’s not shooting enough, personally,” said Cassidy. “I think that’s what happens with goal scorers, they look to be maybe too cute at times. Pasta certainly has the ability to be cute and be cute effectively. Maybe for him, it’s maybe a matter of getting pucks to the net, getting to the net. That’s the other thing. Sometimes you need one to go off your leg, or have it rattle around and you get a rebound.
“He went through it last year,” the coach continued, “if I’m not mistaken, and he found his way out of it. We believe he’ll get out of it.” . . .
Sean Kuraly was lucky he didn’t suffer a catastrophic injury when a Senators’ skate came up and hit him in the side of the head. It was scary enough for the refs to whistle the play dead, but Kuraly was not hurt.