Kalman: Krug Turning Page On Sad Saturday Night Story
WILMINGTON (CBS) – In a NHL career that's consisted of less than 30 games, Torey Krug hasn't had many nights worse than the he experienced Saturday night against New Jersey.
Even before the Bruins defenseman took a double-minor for high sticking and sparked the New Jersey Devils to a miraculous comeback, Krug had been on the ice for the Devils' first two goals.
So in a 4-3 loss that featured the Devils scoring twice in a 23-second span in the final 90 seconds of the game, Krug was on the ice for two goals against and in the box for the second two. And to think, the evening started with him scoring the first goal of the game on a power play.
"Uh, right after," Krug said Monday when asked after practice at Ristuccia Arena how long it took to get over the defeat. "It sucked, losing the way we did and obviously individually what I did didn't help the team win. So you know that sucks too. But you turn the page and that's why there's 82 games in the season, so that hopefully your body of work, you can throw out games like that."
The body of work, although short since Krug turned pro in the spring of 2012, has been impressive. The goal against New Jersey was his fourth of the season and matched his total from the 15 postseason games from last spring. He also has two assists and is plus-3 on the year. While the Bruins' power play could stand to cash in on a few more of their opportunities, Krug's presence on the back line has been a difference-maker that's at least made teams work harder to kill off Boston's man advantages.
Krug's production so far and his improved defensive play, however, didn't make it any easier to forget about Saturday.
"That's the good thing about playoffs is you're playing every other day," he said. "There's not a lot of time to dwell on mistakes. It's tough but you've got to ready for the next one."
This isn't the first major speed bump on the road for Krug. He spent much of the third period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals last June on the bench after a costly giveaway. He answered for his sins the next day and rebounded to have a solid series. There's little doubt that just as he bounced back against Chicago and just as he's found ways to improve his game over the years to overcome his size disadvantage, he'll turn Saturday's gaffes into ancient history quicker than he can roof a wrist shot from the top of the circle.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
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