Kalman: Bruins Four Game Win Streak Shouldn't Stop You From Worrying About Krejci
BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins have won four in a row after beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 at TD Garden on Thursday, but here's something to worry about.
Center David Krejci spent six minutes in the penalty box in the first period. He then had his ice time scaled back over the final seven minutes, and even left the bench, while the Bruins were protecting their lead on their way to a fourth straight win.
Krejci's exploits against Edmonton might not be enough to make you do more than bite your nails. But here's something to be worried about for the Bruins' next 67 games in the regular season, plus playoffs, that might make you bite your nails, lose some hair and have some cramps in your abdomen: the injury that has already cost Krejci five games out of the lineup might not go away anytime soon.
"Yeah, it's a concern. That's not the start to the season I would love to have," Krejci said after he logged 16:16 of ice time in his return after a two-game absence. "But it is what it is. This is actually the first time I'm battling with injuries in my career. It's something new for me, but I've been working hard and I felt pretty good today. So I was good enough to play. So hopefully the next few days are good days and I'll feel even better on Monday."
Krejci spread out his last few shifts of the game, but he got on the ice in the closing seconds to assist on linemate Milan Lucic's empty-net goal with eight seconds left. Still, one has to wonder about Krejci's durability going forward.
Although the Bruins and Krejci won't reveal the nature of the injury, it's been reported that Krejci is dealing with a hip injury, which cost him both the two most recent games before the Edmonton match and also the first three games of the regular season. Krejci says this is the first time he's had to deal with injuries, but in 2009 he underwent hip surgery. Prior to the surgery he said he had been bothered by the injury for most of the season.
"Yeah, but no, this is something else," Krejci said.
He then added, "Good try though."
Oh, you've got to love the NHL and those top-secret injuries!
Krejci has also had a couple concussions and nagging injuries here and there over the years. Even if the current injury is something other than the hip, it's troubling both for this season and beyond. The Bruins just decided to bank on Krejci as a cornerstone of the franchise for beyond the rest of this decade with a six-year, $43.5 million extension that kicks in next season.
Having Krejci going in and out of the lineup could be a detriment to the Bruins, as we saw he takes a little time to shake the rust off after he's been out. Against the Oilers, he took a four-minute high sticking penalty. Then he closed out the first period with a hooking penalty.
He finished the night with two shots on net and a respectable eight faceoff wins in 13 tries. Coach Claude Julien was able to live with Krejci's off-kilter performance because the likes of Carl Soderberg (one goal, one assist), Loui Eriksson (one goal one assist) and Dougie Hamilton (one goal, two assists) picked up the slack offensively.
"Well, I wasn't impressed with him in the first period. Six penalty minutes isn't what you want to see out of a guy like him," Julien said. "So it was just a matter of him just coming in and understanding he's missed the first three of the season, he missed the last, whatever couple of games. So, I don't think he's in midseason form yet, so he's got to just keep his shifts short, try and bring the pace of his game up to what it is when he's good and work on that part of it. But it's his first game back, so I don't think we were expecting him to carry the team tonight."
One night without carrying the weight of the team against the lowly Edmonton Oilers is fine. Heck, the Bruins depth up front could allow Krejci to take a week or two to really hit his stride. Nonetheless, we don't know if he's going to be healthy enough to carry the team for the long haul. And despite Patrice Bergeron's all-around greatness and Soderberg's emergence as a force, Krejci has to be an electrifying two-way player – the player he has been during a couple recent postseasons – for the Bruins to maximize their success.
Already, though, he was monitoring his minutes in the third period against Edmonton.
"At the end of the game, it was getting a little sore," Krejci said. "So I was being smart. The game was 4-2 so I know we have other guys that can do the job. So I was just playing smart and trying to keep the shifts short. I'm glad we got it done."
Krejci is supposed to be a 28-year-old continually rising star of the NHL. His first absence from the lineup didn't stop him from scoring nine points (three goals) in nine games. The injury and his recent time on the sidelines might not stop him from being a point-per-game player the rest of the way. But hip injuries and hockey players are never a good mix. Chronic injuries of any kind and hockey players are a sour mix.
The Bruins' depth down the middle that could make them a championship team this season and in the six ahead is contingent on a full-strength Krejci. Right now the Bruins have no guarantees that they'll have a healthy Krejci.
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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