Aside from the snowflake and reindeer-adorned Christmas suit he donned ahead of Thursday’s win over the Ducks, David Krejci isn’t one to make much of an entrance.
Largely unassuming and understated, the 32-year-old center doesn’t tend to wax poetic when fielding questions about his own on-ice accomplishments — as hefty as his resume may be.
On the night he passed Cam Neely on the Bruins’ all-time scoring list? “Yeah, it was a great effort by everyone.”
On Thursday night, when he became the 10th Bruin to reach the 600-point plateau? "That’s a nice number, I have been fortunate enough to play with really good players so I can’t just give credit to myself.”
Krejci’s career numbers speak for themselves — 600 points, a Stanley Cup title, 87 points in 105 career postseason matchups.
And although the veteran forward isn’t one to toot his own horn, his teammates are more than willing to pick up the slack.
“He’s one of the greatest playmakers to ever put on a Bruins sweater,” Torey Krug said. “I think it definitely gets overlooked. He’s had some great linemates in the past and the last four, five years have been tough on him to try to develop chemistry with guys.”
While Krejci is on pace to tally his first 70-point campaign since the 2008-09 season, the last couple of years haven’t been as friendly to the center — both on the injury front and scoring.
Already a conduit for criticism thanks to the six-year, $43.5-million contract he inked back in 2015, Krejci saw his numbers dip in the years following his new deal.
Once Boston’s go-to man in the middle with imposing wingers such as Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and Jarome Iginla to his left and right — Krejci struggled to find as strong of a rapport with the linemates that came his way in following seasons.
And while every line that he’s skated with for the past four seasons (min. 100 minutes of TOI together) have posted a 5v5 Corsi-For Percentage above 50 percent, the level of production wasn’t quite there for Krejci — especially when put together with players like Ryan Spooner (440 combined TOI together) or Matt Beleskey (491:00 TOI together).
Despite building a solid bit of chemistry this season with Jake DeBrusk bumped up to a top-six role, the 2017-18 campaign was another year filled with flak for Krejci — with injuries limiting him to 64 games and 44 points, his lowest scoring total since the 2014 season.
What followed was a summer full of rumors regarding Krejci’s potential as a trade chip, especially as Boston set its sights on the top free-agent prize in John Tavares. Even after Boston’s pursuit of Tavares came up short, Krejci still entered his 12th full season without a set line established — with a revolving door installed at right wing to find a suitable player to pair with the playmaker.
As is the case with every player, Krejci is far from impervious when it comes to criticism. Like it or not, his contract is tough to ignore, he doesn’t fire in enough pucks for a player that has a rifle of a shot and he has been prone to lulls in production during the course of a season that can throw Boston’s top six out of whack.
But as evidenced by his play over the last month or so, Krejci should not be taken lightly as a viable, top-line pivot. Now, this might seem like a stretch here, but placing a playmaking center in between top-flight wingers? Might just be a recipe for success.
“It’s easy to overlook when you see one of the greatest two-way forwards to ever play the game right in front of him,” Krug said of Krejci and Patrice Bergeron. “They get all the spotlight. He just quietly goes about his business, gets rewarded for it and now that he’s playing with the top guys, he’s on fire. You’d like to see him keep going.”
While few players in the entire league can replace what Bergeron gives the Bruins in just about every facet of the game — there’s no doubting that Krejci has found his second wind playing alongside skaters like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.
While a Bruins top line with Bergeron in the middle is no joke (56.46 Corsi-For Percentage, plus-3 goal differential, 3.88 goals per 60 minutes), a revamped triumvirate with Krejci at center has more than picked up the slack following Bergeron’s month-long absence while recovering from a rib/sternoclavicular injury.
Through 107 minutes of 5v5 time on ice together, Marchand-Krejci-Pastrnak are now up to a 56.72 Corsi-For Percentage, while generating an impressive plus-6 goal differential and 4.48 goals for over 60 minutes.
"That’s kind of out of my control," Krejci said of potentially playing with Marchand and Pastrnak once Bergeron returns. "I’m just going to go out there and do what I do, play with the players I’m going to play with, try to create the things that I’ve been doing the last few games with Marchand and Pastrnak."
"We’ve been playing good hockey the last couple games," Krejci said of Thursday's win. "Especially in Montreal that was a big game for us we built on it and had another strong game tonight."
Well said.