A rare bout for David Krejci gave Bruins 'a little extra juice' in Thursday's bounce-back win

If it was up to David Krejci, the veteran pivot would much rather deliver a couple of saucer feeds, instead of a few right hooks. 

A quick scan of the record books validates the 33-year-old forward’s usual line of thinking whenever he hops over the boards. 

Entering Thursday night's game against Dallas, Krejci had racked up 476 assists in 905 career games, good for eighth-most in Bruins franchise history. During that same stretch, he’s only dropped the gloves twice during regular-season play — once on Dec. 16, 2010 against Montreal’s Mike Cammalleri, and again on Feb. 9, 2011 in another brouhaha with the Habs and winger Benoit Pouliot. 

But against the Stars, Krejci finally had enough. 

He might not have landed any punches against Dallas’ defense in what was a 4-3 victory for the B’s, but the soft-spoken Krejci still managed to deal out plenty of punishment against Joe Pavelski on the TD Garden ice. 



After numerous pokes, pushes and shoves throughout the first half of Thursday's matchup, Krejci finally dropped the gloves against the Stars forward at 11:34 in the middle frame, putting a raucous Garden crowd on its feet by using Pavelski's head as a speed bag during a salvo of heavy hooks.



As he skated to the sin bin, his knuckles bloodied after connecting with Pavelski's bucket, Krejci's teammates saluted his efforts with a chorus of stick taps against the boards — as "Gangsta's Paradise" blared over the speakers.

"He definitely got a few good shots in," Nick Ritchie noted. 

Sure, Krejci would much rather be known for his playmaking prowess than his fighting ability. But that doesn't mean he wasn't going to respond after taking plenty of abuse from the Stars veteran.

"I thought there were a few times where he kind of went a little too far," Krejci said of Pavelski. "Even in the first period, I just kind of didn't like it. It's just one of those things. Happy he was willing to go and we settled it down right there and we move on. I have nothing personal against that guy. I like him as a player, but I thought a few times he went a little too far and I just didn't like it."

Krejci's third career fighting major was more about the center standing up for himself than anything else. But when one of the veterans in your room starts throwing haymakers, it was only natural that the rest of the Bruins' bench was going to get lifted by such a scrap.

"That was, for us, a key moment," Zdeno Chara said. "A guy like that who's not known for dropping gloves had a great physical game. He stood up for himself and did a great job."

For the final 8:36 of the second period, the Bruins rewarded Krejci's efforts by out-shooting the Stars, 7-1, and breaking what was a 1-1 deadlock with a pair of tallies.

Less than four minutes after Krejci's went to the box, Brad Marchand gave Boston its first lead of the evening, rifling a one-timer past Ben Bishop off of a nifty feed from Charlie McAvoy. One minute and 17 seconds later, Ritchie gave Boston a two-goal cushion — his wrister from the slot sailing through traffic and past Bishop for the winger's first goal in a black and gold sweater.

"Get a couple old-timers like that going at it — I mean, everyone enjoys it," Bruce Cassidy said of the energy brought on by Krejci's bout. "I don’t know much about Pavelski, but Krech, I’ve seen him in a few over the years. He can hold his own. He’s a good partner for him, looked like there were two willing guys going at it so that’s just some of that stuff that happens in hockey through the course of the game. It’s organic, nothing staged there. It certainly woke us up. Not that I felt we didn’t have it early on, but gave us a little extra juice. Let’s put it that way."

Krejci's fists might have provided the spark Boston needed on Thursday night, but his new-look second line was also far from a non-factor. Like Krejci, new winger Ondrej Kase didn't contribute on the scoresheet, but the forward did show off the speed and transition play that should make him a key cog as Boston looks to get that top-six unit humming in the offensive zone. Along with his own tally, Ritchie fed David Pastrnak for his 46th goal of the season thanks to an assertive drive to the net — highlighting some of the offense promise that Ritchie could bring this club beyond just the welts he should inflect on the forecheck.

"Ondrej looked like he hadn’t played in a while, was trying to find his groove there a little bit," Cassidy said of Krejci's new wings. "A little bit rusty. I think Nick was much better than the other night, a little more into the game. Puck was finding him. And we knew that would happen, I just thought it was unfair the other night. You fly in, it’s a lot of newness going on. He’s had a couple of days to acclimate a little bit.

"Listen, I’m not going to say he’s going to get two points every night, but he’ll probably be somewhere in between there and that’s what we expect out of him. A bigger body, especially in this type of game I thought. They’re a heavy team, they finish checks and you’ve got to work to get to the net. And I thought he did a real good job with that."

Going forward, Krejci will likely be much more comfortable with Ritchie throwing his weight around rather than himself when his line is out for a shift.

But as Krejci reinforced on Thursday night — drop your gloves at your own risk.

"Are you as accurate (with your punches) as you are passing the puck," was one of the final questions Krejci fielded in his postgame scrum.

"Probably better," Krejci said with a smirk.