Krejci, Bruins get off to healthy start
On a night at the Garden when so much of the spotlight, rightly so, shined on the youngest of the Bruins — forwards Jake DeBrusk and Anders Bjork and defenseman Charlie McAvoy — it was important Thursday not to overlook some of this team’s key veterans.
At the top of that list was center David Krejci, who was named the No. 1 star for the B’s 4-3 opening night victory against the Nashville Predators.
Simply put, Krejci has long been the key to the Bruins. Of course there are other key pieces in the team puzzle — including, now, the kids — but when he’s in peak form, this is a much, much better team. When he’s not, the opposite.
In the early months last season, coming back from major offseason hip surgery, Krejci was gamely (and probably prematurely) in the lineup, and he stayed there for all 82 games. But for something like half of the season, he was far from the player he wanted to be, as his skating was diminished by the surgery and lengthy rehab.
Finally healthy and moving properly in the second half of the campaign, he ended up putting up numbers most NHLers would covet — 23 goals, 31 assists — and was a key to the B’s returning to the postseason. The quest to go to the playoff dance again becomes a lot easier with the 31-year-old in peak form from the start.
The Bruins, who had a scheduled day off yesterday and get back to work today to prep for Monday’s Garden visit by the Colorado Avalanche, are missing other key puzzle pieces. Forwards Patrice Bergeron and David Backes and defenseman Torey Krug missed the opener, and forward Noel Acciari was injured blocking a shot.
If and when the lineup is intact, a healthy Krejci could be a key in this being a very potent club, one that plays with speed, skill and creativ- ity. Always a voice of calm reason, Krejci cautioned against making too much of the Game 1 win.
“It was a good game but you don’t want to get ahead of yourself, you know?” Krejci said Thursday night. “You’ve got to keep working. Practice has been good. (Thursday) was a good game, a strong game. We played with high pace, lots of speed, got the job done. So, enjoy the next couple days and get ready for Monday.”
Coach Bruce Cassidy’s line-juggling led to Krejci playing much of the game with rookies DeBrusk and Bjork as his wingers. Presumably that will change at least partially when Bergeron returns. But Krejci, like everyone at the Garden, was impressed with the youngsters’ poise and performances.
“It’s normal to have a little nerves in you before the first game,” Krejci said. “Not just for the young guys but for the veterans, as well. It was the first game in a long time. But I thought they handled themselves pretty good. Charlie and DeBrusk got the first goal so that’ll help their confidence. And Bjork got a point as well, so good for them. I played with Jake a lot this training camp. Haven’t skated with Bjork at all, but for some reason I thought we were finding each other pretty well.
“We’ll see how the lineup is going to look like, but it was fun playing this game.”
Krejci is delighted with the infusion of young talent.
“I feel good, excited,” he said. “If you look back a few years ago and now it’s a totally different team (with) lots of young guys. So it’s a lot of good, fast players and so it’s fun to play with them.”
And the critical point is that management’s rebuilding program has delivered these kids, with more on the way. There’s a nice balance of veterans and surprisingly mature youngsters.
“There was no hesitation, which was very encouraging and great to see,” said captain Zdeno Chara, who played a team-high 23:33 of smothering defense. “Sometimes you see that there’s excitement and energy, but they might have a little hesitation about whether they should or shouldn’t go to that spot, or to forecheck, or name it. You can pick different examples, but it was nice that there was a good flow. Everyone was on the same page.”
So one down and 81 to go, Bruins fans have plenty to like about this team.