How Torey Krug ‘parted the Red Sea’ and delivered for Boston in his return to game action

The possibilities were endless for Torey Krug as he corralled the puck behind the Bruins’ net. 

In front of him? Plenty of ice to work with — a byproduct of the 3v3 overtime slate that Boston found itself in, just minutes after staving off a regulation loss thanks to a pair of David Krejci tallies just 48 seconds apart. 

To his left and right? Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand glided along the boards toward the Minnesota Wild’s side of the sheet, waiting for their puck carrier to make the first move. 

This was an area of the game where Krug, playing for the first time since Nov. 10th due to injury, had been sorely missed over the last two weeks.

Open ice is right in the playmaking defenseman’s wheelhouse, but even Krug had to do a bit of a double-take when assessing the structure of the Wild’s three-man defensive line.

Or rather, the lack thereof.



"I don’t know what we were thinking. … We parted the Red Sea," Minnesota bench boss Bruce Boudreau said postgame after Boston's 5-4 overtime victory. "You can’t skate untouched right through the middle of the ice." 

Sure enough, an open lane right to Alex Stalock in net presented itself to Krug as he started making strides through the neutral zone. But Minnesota's defensive gaffe was far from being completely self-inflicted.

While Krug often relies more on power rather than quick feet to launch himself across the sheet during odd-man rushes and scoring chances, the 28-year-old skater's on-ice awareness trumps just about every attribute in his extensive playmaking repertoire — even that patented heavy shot.

It's Krug's ability to alter his method of attack on the fly — and exploit whatever tell the opposing defenses reveal — that makes him one of the most effective scoring options from the blue line in this league. It's why opposing PKs struggle to contain him on man advantages when he switches between point work and half-wall maneuvers throughout a shift. And it's why Zach Parise was left flat-footed on Saturday night as Krug charged past him in the neutral zone.

Krug admitted postgame that his initial move in OT was to carry the puck through center ice at a more controlled pace, allowing Marchand and Bergeron to set themselves up at the offensive blue line and wait for Krug's initiative.

But first, Krug would have to deal with Parise, who put himself in the B's defenseman's crosshairs by coasting toward Minnesota's zone, his back turned to the advancing Bruin.

"I wanted to come up a little bit slower," Krug explained. "See what my options were. Came up the left side a little bit to mess with Parise's gap. But once I took a couple hard strides, I realized that I could beat him. A parting of the sea there and Marchy and Bergy drew some attention as well and all of a sudden. I was in alone."

With Parise hovering out toward teammate Brad Hunt, already preoccupied with Marchand in front of him, Krug deviated course in short order, cutting right again and turning on the jets.

Before Parise was able to re-calibrate, Krug was already honing in on Stalock, unopposed to his right with Luke Kunin tied up with No. 37. With Minnesota's three-man grouping completely folded in, Krug advanced right to the Wild's doorstep — beating Stalock, five-hole, with a nifty backhand attempt.

Game.

"I get a lot of breakaways," Krug said of the coup de grace.  "Instincts just kicked in — joking, obviously."



Krug's OT winner capped a spirited comeback for Boston, which clawed back from a 4-2 deficit with 58 minutes already eclipsed on the clock to extend its home point streak to 13 games (9-0-4) during the 2019-20 campaign. Individually, the 5-4 final also once again reinforced the creativity and playmaking acumen that Krug provides on the B's D corps.

Saturday stood as a daunting test for Krug, looking to shake off the rust that had accumulated following two weeks on the shelf — especially when it came to the taxing minutes that he had to log away from the strengths of his game. With Boston whistled for seven penalties on the night, Krug had to log 1:37 of time on the PK to account for the absence of the usual shorthanded stalwarts like Zdeno Chara (6 PIM).

It was far from a perfect night for Krug — who was whistled for an O-zone infraction after slashing Kevin Fiala in the opening stanza. But with Bruce Cassidy feeding his defenseman favorable matchups (90% of his faceoffs came in the O-zone), Krug was as advertised — with Boston holding a 13-4 edge in shots on goal during his 12:52 of 5v5 TOI.



Along with his OT winner, Krug added a pair of helpers in the win — one that set up Krejci's game-tying goal with 1:07 left in regulation, and another in the second period generated off of a trademark bank pass off of the end boards.

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"Torey was good," Cassidy said of his defenseman's play. "He had to kill a lot of penalties, which coming off a five-game lay-off isn’t ideal. Zee got whistled a few times tonight so, we’re a little bit shorthanded in that regard in terms of how they try to generate on the power play. They got bigger bodies up front so, (Matt Grzelcyk) and (Steven) Kampfer and Krug had their hands full.

"I think it was seven (penalties) by the end of the night. ... So it’s good that he had a little left in the tank offensively at the end of the night and he played to his strength at the end and finished well. Had a nice spurt through the middle, obviously that took a little bit of conditioning to be able to do that at the end of the game. So clearly he looked after himself while he was out."

For as much as the first 55 minutes of Saturday's matchup were miserable for Krug and Co., there wasn't much pessimism to be found in the B's locker room following another dramatic comeback.

In the end, the Bruins left the Garden with another two points in hand — and more importantly, their go-to playmaker on the blue line back in the fold.

"Having that celebration on the goal that tied the game, those are great feelings," Krug said. "Those are moments that bring a team together throughout a season. That group of guys that was on the ice, takes a lot of pride in being those guys that make things happen."