In a perfect situation, Bruce Cassidy would have likely turned to his usual shutdown options whenever Tampa Bay’s big guns in Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point hopped over the boards.
But with Tuesday’s Atlantic-Division showdown taking place at Amalie Arena, Jon Cooper and the Bolts have the luxury of last change, allowing the home club to dictate most of the matchups throughout a contest.
As such, rather than Boston’s checking line or Patrice Bergeron’s crew getting the call against the Bolts’ top scorers, the responsibility fell to the grouping of David Krejci, Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase — a recently formed trio that entered Tuesday’s bout with a whopping 18:02 of 5v5 ice time together.
Yes, perhaps it was far from ideal for the B's. But to put a positive spin on Boston's fortunes, Tuesday's tall task of stymieing Kucherov and Co. might have been the trial by fire Cassidy and his staff were looking for when it came to assessing the true merit of Krejci's new cohorts.
Fair to say, they didn't disappoint.
Krejci and his linemates ultimately didn't factor into the scoring in what was ultimately a 2-1 victory for Boston over Tampa Bay — the club's 14th win in its last 17 outings.
But perhaps more importantly, neither did Kucherov or the rest of Tampa's top skaters.
At first glance, the new Krejci line might seem more like a potpourri of differing hockey ideologies, rather than a cohesive unit: A puck-dominant pivot often at his best when slowing down the pace in the O-zone, a speedy winger that piles on shots with regularity upon crossing the offensive blue line and a 6-foot-2, 230-pound power forward that's at his best throwing his weight around down low.
But so far, it's been a rather potent mix as far as puck-possession metrics are concerned — especially during Tuesday's win.
During an extended 40-minute stretch in which Boston outshot Tampa, 31-14, through the first two periods of play, Krejci's line led the way thanks to some smooth transitional play and extended O-zone possessions.
In that 10:34 of 5v5 ice time that the Ritchie-Krejci-Kase line logged during the first two periods, Boston held:
- An absurd 18-5 edge in shot attempts (Sheesh.)
- 10-2 advantage in shots on goal.
- 12-3 edge in scoring chances.
- Shot attempts: 9-5
- Shots on goal: 5-3
- Scoring chances: 4-2
