Given his level of play, there was no singular skater that could fill the void left by Patrice Bergeron following a rib/sternoclavicular injury that will set the center back for at least a month.
But for the time being, David Krejci is going to do his best to assuage Boston’s fears at the pivot, even if his role as the Bruins’ top-line center got off to a less than stellar start, to put it lightly.
In the days following Bergeron’s injury, a promoted Krejci had the benefit of some extra firepower on his wings in the NHL leader in goals in David Pastrnak and a fellow speedster on the cusp of breaking out in Anders Bjork.
And in the following two games? Zero points for the re-imagined top forward trio, to go along with an ugly 29 percent success rate at the faceoff dot for Krejci.
The silver linings were there in terms of possession statistics (68.00 Corsi For Percentage vs. Detroit on Wednesday), but Bruce Cassidy made it clear that this shorthanded Bruins club needed more tangible production from one its few healthy veteran forwards.
“Well, if he’s not, he should,” Cassidy said of Krejci recognizing the need to step up. “That’s part of being a leader, a guy recognizing what goes on in this league, so I would like to think that that would be part of his motivation to play, or even be even more focused. Listen, no matter who’s in the lineup, he’s going to want to play well every night – I’m stating the obvious, but we need him to be better than average every night.
"We’ve got some young kids in behind him that are going to have to find their way, so he’s going to have to carry a bit more water than maybe he normally would.”
Up front, it was shaping up to be another frustrating outing from the B’s forwards during Friday’s home tilt against the Penguins.
The bottom six was unable to cash in, with David Backes’ first goal since late April negated upon a lengthy video review.
In an effort to add a spark up front, Cassidy reunited Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on the same line, but neither winger tallied a point — with the duo combining for just three total points in their last five games.
With Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson in the middle, Boston’s top line was feasted on by Sidney Crosby’s crew — as the Marchand-JFK-Pastrnak line finished the contest with an ugly 37.84 CF% in a little over 17 minutes of five-on-five TOI.
And while Boston’s big guns went silent, Krejci picked a pretty good time to deliver one of his best outings of the 2018-19 campaign.
The final stat sheet marked Krejci with just a single assist — the primary helper on linemate Jake DeBrusk’s ninth goal of the season — but the veteran center was the driving force on a line that imposed its will against the Penguins, keying Boston to an eventual 2-1 overtime victory.
In 17:27 of 5v5 TOI, Krejci was consistently in Pittsburgh’s zone, posting a 62.86 CF% while on the ice for 22 attempts for the B’s and just 13 for the Penguins. Logging 16:34 of ice time with Danton Heinen to his left, the pair were out for just 11 attempts by the Penguins — while Boston held a commanding 10-3 edge during that extended stretch.
“They were terrific,” Cassidy said of his second line. “No beef at all with them. They were by far our best line, generated the most offense, scored our only goal, good for them. I thought Krech had a lot of gel. Very good.”
With the puck usually on Krejci’s stick, the chances were few and far between for an explosive Penguins line featuring Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Tanner Pearson.
Aside from a power-play laser by Malkin in the second stanza that put Pittsburgh on the board — a line with a combined 59 points on its resume was largely neutralized when matched up with the Krejci line.
No. 46 often found his name called whenever both Kessel and Malkin were out on the ice together, with Krejci finishing the game with over 13 minutes of ice time when the Pens' duo were skating.
And while Crosby and Co. generated plenty of chances against Marchand, Forsbacka Karlsson and Pastrnak, the same couldn’t be said for Malkin’s crew — as Boston held an 8-3 edge in shots on goal whenever Krejci’s covered the Pens’ second line.
The cherry on top for Krejci came off of his helper in the second period — which moved the Czech forward into a tie for 11th place on the Bruins’ all-time scoring list with Peter McNab with 587 points.
.@JDebrusk and David Krejci are all in for the season of giving (and going). #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/d3WnOLPYYm
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 24, 2018