David Krejci isn’t one to get too high or too low over the course of a game, week, series — you name it.
Win or lose, rain or shine, the veteran center often stays composed and even-keel with his comments, especially when asked to share his thoughts from a podium.
Wednesday was no different, even just minutes after Boston's 4-3 win over the Hurricanes in Game 1 — a contest, mind you, in which Krejci tallied his first goal in 190 days.
“Lucky it went in, it was a good goal for our team, gave us some confidence,” Krejci said. “But at the same time, we have another game tomorrow. Playoff momentum changes pretty quickly. ... (You) correct some mistakes, look at some positives, improve on those and move on."
With 136 playoff games logged in his career, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Krejci doesn't draw too much from one result over a potential seven-game slate.
Or maybe the B’s veteran center just has one hell of a poker face — because Wednesday's win was the best his line has looked in a very, very long time.
Even with just one tally on the scoresheet, Boston's second line of Krejci, Ondrej Kase and Jake DeBrusk was an offensive juggernaut against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. Krejci, resembling the player that paced the NHL in playoff scoring in 2011 and 2013, controlled the tempo and orchestrated numerous quality chances for his linemates against Carolina — serving as the maestro of a B's offense that generated 13 high-danger looks and outshot the Canes, 35-23, during 5v5 play.
"That line arguably was – you always look at the tape after, and they’re probably our most dangerous line tonight," Bruce Cassidy said. "So that is something that we talked about. Secondary scoring."
Krejci's tally just 59 seconds into the third period was generated off of a shot from a sliding Kase in the crease — with the B's deadline pickup recording two assists in as many games with Boston since returning to Phase 4 action.
While the results between Krejci and Kase were decidedly mixed during their brief six games together during the regular season, Boston's new winger seemingly has let much rust form despite his extended quarantine.
When Krejci is at his best, he's given the time and space to find linemates driving toward Grade-A, and Kase has answered the call in that regard. He may not be a big body like Krejci's old linemates such as Milan Lucic, Jarome Iginla and Nathan Horton, but Kase has shown a willingness to drive to the net when his center has the puck on his stick — and more importantly, let some pucks fly when the opportunity presents itself.
Through two games together up in Phase 4 action, the Bruins have benefited tremendously whenever Krejci and Kase have been on the ice together, with Boston holding the edge in ...
Shot Attempts: 33-14
Shots On Goal: 17-2
Scoring Chances: 15-7
High-Danger Scoring Chances: 4-2
Goals Scored: 2-0
... over just 24:13 of 5v5 time on ice.
Those are some dominant offensive numbers, and a far cry from the subpar results that both Krejci and Kase put together over six games and 54:46 of 5v5 ice time.
Shot Attempts: 52-51 in favor of opponents
Shots On Goal: 27-25 in favor of opponents
Scoring Chances: 24-19
High-Danger Scoring Chances: 9-7 in favor of opponents
Goals Scored: 2-0 in favor of opponents
"Kase is another guy, first game. I thought he was fantastic," Cassidy said. "He’s on pucks all night, played his game. Had some good looks. A nice play on [David] Krejci’s goal. "
The case could be made that Boston's second line was robbed of at least another goal or two, as a number of odd-man rushes or quality looks were negated by overpassing or whiffs in Grade-A ice.
DeBrusk in particular found himself mired in some poor puck luck as the game went on, headlined by a fantastic set-up in the second period in which Krejci fed him a backdoor saucer feed. Despite the open net in front of him (and with Krejci already raising his arms in triumph), DeBrusk's attempt went high over the Canes' net, with a frustrated DeBrusk smashing his snakebitten stick into smithereens upon returning to the bench.
https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1293585396174135299
Still, even if he was unable to bury that feed or other quality looks, DeBrusk's effort was far improved from previous Phase 4 contests, in which the winger was far from engaged and not battling down low in the areas where he could be the recipient of a crisp pass from Krejci.
In total, DeBrusk landed four shots on net in Wednesday's win, along with 11 total shot attempts on the afternoon.
*It remains to be seen if Kase (left) and DeBrusk (right) can keep up these shooting performances, but if so, Krejci is going to keeping find them in short order if they remain down in the low slot like this.*
"I think Jake was a little bit (frustrated), he had a few good looks, didn’t go his way," Cassidy said. "I thought he worked hard to get those. He keeps doing those type of things, it’ll go in for him."
To take a page out of Krejci's book — yes, the prudent move would be to wait and see if this revamped second line can build off of Wednesday's impressive outing. Given the lack of cohesion that Krejci has dealt with over the last two seasons, it's only natural to reserve judgement when it comes to buying in on the 74-46-28 trio.
But for a team in desperate need of some scoring punch beyond the expected production from Patrice Bergeron's line, Wednesday's win stood as a great start for Krejci's crew — one that the Bruins will certainly take going into this playoff run.
"If they can do that every night, we’re going to be a very dangerous hockey club," Cassidy said. "Some nights, I think the puck follows you. You work for it and you get it back. Other nights you work your butt off and it doesn’t seem to bounce your way or find it, you have to stick with it. Tonight, I thought Jake from the first shift on, second effort, Krech was going. Good in the circle. Solid, solid with the puck and away from the puck to get it back. That’s the formula we’d like, I’m not going to lie to you. I’d love to replicate that every night with those guys.
"Like I said, Kase took a few hits and he bounced back. Really what I liked was the second effort on the pucks. That makes any team hard to play against. That’s what happened with that line tonight. And they were – I guess if you ask Carolina — they were hard to play against."
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick,