Breaking down the final seconds, from Krug's icing to the game-winning blast

When it was David Pastrnak, and not Patrice Bergeron, across from the Kings’ Anze Kopitar on the final faceoff of the game Saturday at TD Garden, all the veteran centerman could do was smile.

“Absolutely,” Kopitar told BostonSportsJournal.com after the Kings’ improbable 2-1 overtime victory with 0.4 seconds remaining. “To be quite honest with you, I was a little bit surprised that (Bergeron) wasn’t out there but we’ll take it.”

Bergeron and Kopitar are considered two of the best two-way centermen in the NHL, so it was enjoyable to watch them go head-to-head for almost the entire game. When it mattered the most, however, Bergeron was on the bench, watching as Kopitar won a clean draw against Pastrnak, before the Kings’ Tyler Toffoli’s one-timer from the top of the circle beat Tuukka Rask for the win.

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It was an incredible ending, and here's an inside look at how the final 4 seconds went down, through the eyes of both sides:

During the 3-on-3 overtime format, both teams were exhausted. It was a highly intense and physical game. The tanks were empty. It appeared as though it would head to the shootout when Torey Krug had possession of the puck in the neutral and all he had to do was take another stride over the red line and dump the puck in with only four seconds remaining.

Instead, he inadvertently iced the puck.

You could hear the gasp from the fans in the building. At first, the clock showed .04 after the linesman called the icing, but the call to reset the clock to 0.9 seconds came from the NHL’s hockey operations in Toronto. It’s the rule that the league reviews anything under a minute in overtime, so 0.9 was the correct time that should’ve been on the clock. The clock also started on time when the linesman dropped the puck and it was on Toffoli’s stick for the one-timer at 0.7 and it clearly went in at 0.5 and the clock stopped at 0.4.

Let’s be honest: it’s 0.9 seconds. Again, 0.9 seconds. It’s nearly inconceivable to believe a team could score in that situation. In hindsight, it’s easy to dissect the situation and come up with a better plan.

How about a penalty off the faceoff?

Absolutely. Pastrnak could have somehow put his hand on the puck, which is a delay-of-game penalty. That would have given the Kings a 5-on-3 situation, which includes the extra attacker with the goalie pulled. It would have also allowed the Bruins to have Bergeron on the ice for the faceoff against Kopitar.

“Maybe we should have taken a faceoff penalty and then it’s only 5-on-3, and Bergy gets to hop over the boards to come take the faceoff; maybe that’s something we should’ve done, but it's tough," Krug said. "It’s a bad icing by me. I put our team in that situation and couldn’t overcome it.”

Bruce Cassidy admitted after the game that was discussed during the Kings’ timeout after the icing.

“We did,” he said. “I told them, if you get thrown out in a faceoff infraction, it’s 5-on-3 and with 0.9 seconds left, they’ll just add a player. They’re going to run the same play. They could have 10 guys out there. They only have so much time. That was discussed. The faceoff happened quick and he didn’t have time to get thrown out.”

Cassidy said he didn’t want to whine about it because the Bruins still had a job to do and couldn’t execute it.

“Get the job done with 0.9 seconds left and you don’t have to worry about that,” he said.

“If someone told you before that it could happen and they could score in 0.9 seconds – drop the puck, win it and shoot it – you’d probably say ‘I don’t know.’ Boy, that’s tough. I’m not sure you can do it again if you try 100 times with no players on the ice.”

Added Bergeron, “It was just a perfect play for them. It was a bang-bang play. It’s obviously unfortunate and you’re hoping to just get it done with .09. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again, but we’ll have better options.”

Now, here’s the other side of the story.

After the icing by Krug, Los Angeles coach John Stevens called a timeout. The point was to give his players a rest, especially Kopitar because he logged 25:08 of ice time. Plus, Stevens also realized that the Bruins did not have a natural centerman to take the draw. During the timeout, Stevens asked the officials to check the time on the clock, but the league already did and made the proper adjustment.

Since the draw was in the right faceoff circle, the Kings made sure to have two right-handers – Toffoli and Drew Doughty – behind Kopitar for the one-timer.

“It couldn’t have landed better between Tyler’s feet, with Tanner (Pearson) inside just looking to box out in front of the net, so it was a perfect execution for the guys on the ice,” Stevens said.

Kopitar explained he was trying to get to Pastrnak’s stick first. Kopitar also noticed that Pastrnak had a very wide stance, which made it easier to win the draw back.

“I’ve never seen it in my hockey career to work like that, or that fast. You know, we’ll certainly take it,” he said.

Stevens was just thrilled that Bergeron, or Brad Marchand, were not on the ice on the final play.

“Bergeron has pretty good success against the entire league (at faceoffs),” Stevens said. “You have (David) Krejci (not playing due to injury), Bergeron, (David) Backes, those guys are all terrific in the faceoff circle, which makes it tough because you start without the puck a lot. ... Bergeron’s a great player, and Bergeron and Marchand are a great a pair as we see in the league and they make you really work to defend them, so to not have them on the ice is a huge bonus for us.”

If and when a similar scenario happens again against the Bruins, the entire team will be better prepared for the situation. Oh, and by the way, Bergeron had a 10-6 advantage on faceoffs versus Kopitar during the game.