Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy preaching harder shots from the point

MONTREAL – Torey Krug collected his 200^th NHL point during Thursday’s 5-2 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Sure, it’s a decent milestone for a defenseman but it’s how he collected No. 200 that proved crucial for the Bruins.

Many times during that game he stood on the blue line with his head in the air in disgust after goalie Jaroslav Halak stopped the play with a save on one of Krug’s shots from the point. He was a man possessed with the puck and he was pounding the net hard with a heavy shot. On paper, he produced three shots on net and one led to a rebound that helped create Patrice Bergeron’s power-play goal.



In fact, it’s something the Bruins want more from their defenseman. When asked about it, Krug had a little trouble with the question at first as a boy from the Midwest.

“What did you say? Hardah,” Krug responded with a smile. “Because I just want to make sure.”

Sorry, HARDER shots.

“It’s something we talked about as a team,” admitted Krug. “The ways teams defend, there are a lot of guys that will eat pucks, so instead of boxing out our forwards, they’re fronting our forwards and blocking shots and that starts their transition. A great example of that is (Erik) Karlsson in Ottawa. In order to prevent that you just take harder shots and make sure when you have a chance you get it on net, so it doesn’t give (opponent) an opportunity to knock it down and go away with it.”

It happened against the Canadiens during Wednesday’s 4-1 win by the Bruins at TD Garden. When the puck goes low to high in the offensive zone, which is something the Bruins like to do in order to mix in the defensemen and get more pucks to the net. Since the season is just past the midway point, teams have the book on the Bruins and opponents are beginning to stuff the slot area with bodies.

The idea is to move the puck to the point in order to create space. But coach Bruce Cassidy no longer wants a lazy wrister taken from the blue line. Too often opponents have been knocking those down and quickly transitioning. So, the coaching staff has made it a point of interest of late to make sure there are no more lazy shots from the blue line.

“We’re trying to discourage that, so it’s either shoot it hard, or it goes back below the goal line so our forwards can anticipate and then you can wear teams down (on the forecheck),” explained Cassidy. “We did a better job half way through the first period and we’re a load to play against. That ends up eventually opening (space). If you’re willing to do that early then they start sagging and those shots are open up top where you can really get around it.”

Krug’s ability to gain control of the puck, move along the blue line and find an open lane before unleashing a heavy and accurate slap shot was on display against the Islanders and Cassidy wants more of that on Saturday against the Canadiens at Bell Centre.

“Torey’s good at it,” said Cassidy. “He’ll find the shooting land and we’d like to see a couple go in for him. He’s that guy that it’ll bother more than some other guy, so hopefully he’ll get a break with that, but he’s shooting it well.”

Now the trick is to get the rest of the shooting defensemen to buy in and produce in a similar manner.