Bruins notes
Resurgent Krug big reason B’s are streaking
MONTREAL — Life is awfully good for the Bruins right now.
They are riding a 16game points streak. They have pulled to within three points of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who not only lead the Atlantic Division but all of the Eastern Conference in points with 65. They have a five-point lead over the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs and a whopping 18-point cushion between themselves and the highest non-playoff Atlantic team.
One of the underlying factors in the team’s success has been the internal competition, and it’s no more evident than in defense with a healthy Adam McQuaid back in the fold. Kevan Miller is having the best season of his NHL career, but he had to sit out Saturday’s 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens after McQuaid had back-to-back strong games while Miller was suffering from an illness. Just when it seemed that Brandon Carlo might be next up for a seat in the press box, he responded with perhaps his best game of the season in Montreal with a plus-3 effort.
And then there’s Torey Krug. After suffering a broken jaw in the first preseason game and then having to wear a football-like facemask, he got off to a very slow start. But with his one-goal, two-assist, plus-3 performance in Montreal, Krug is back in the black on the season with regard to plus/minus — a stat that is denigrated by the analytics people but not by players.
His game is now trending in the right direction.
“He sees (Matt Grzelcyk) playing well and he wants to be a part of it,” coach Bruce Cassidy said of Krug. “In my experience with him — and I haven’t had him forever — but I think as the year goes on, he gets better. And this year, the injuries led to that.
“He missed some time with his jaw, so he was playing a little bit of catch-up, but now he’s getting comfortable. And now as the year’s going, he seems to be getting better.”
It was a little less than a month ago (Dec. 28) that Krug found himself benched late in the third period and overtime in a game against the Capitals in Washington. The ever-blunt Cassidy pointed out afterward that he was simply not gapping up properly in his defensive game. The message was received, and since then Krug has been a plus-8. Saturday’s game might have been his best of the season, as well.
“It’s one of those things where you just keep going and keep working every single day. Put your head down, go to work and don’t listen to anything and it’ll all fall into place for you. I’m just going to continue to do that,” Krug said.
With Cassidy wanting the Zdeno Chara-Charlie McAvoy pairing playing against the Canadiens’ biggest offensive threats, Krug had the chance to play with the hot first line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.
“You play with them, you’re pretty lucky,” said Krug, who scored the gamewinner off a Pastrnak pass. “You’re probably going to have a lot of chances for and only a few against. It’s nice because (the opposition is) so focused on shutting those three down that the fourth ‘D’ can get in on the attack and make something out of nothing and we were able to do that.”
Allowing the first goal is usually not part of a winning formula, but the Bruins lately have been getting away with it. For six straight games, the B’s have allowed the first goal, but they’ve barely blinked.
“Obviously you don’t want to make that happen. Lately I guess it has been,” goalie Tuukka Rask said. “The good thing about our team is that it doesn’t bother us. If we get scored on once or twice, we just keep going, keep plugging away and try to get back in the game and not dwell on things that happened before.” ...
If the NHL doesn’t name Chara to replace the injured Victor Hedman of the Lightning for this weekend’s All-Star Game, it not only would be overlooking the most deserving candidate, it would also be losing out on a chance for the drama of a 40-year-old Chara coming back to defend his hardestshot crown in the otherwise dull skills competition . ...
The B’s get back to practice today in preparation for their Garden game tomorrow night against Taylor Hall and a resurgent New Jersey Devils team.