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Kalman: Few Things More Important For Bruins Than Krejci's Health, Production

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins were a mediocre 16-13-6 with center David Krejci out of their lineup last season.

Several factors contributed to Boston's first playoff-less spring in eight years, but Krejci's battle with injuries ranked near the top, if it wasn't the most important reason the Bruins went home in mid-April.

Five months after the Bruins played their last game of 2014-15, they're just days away from opening training camp. And none of the Bruins' returning veterans has as much pressure on him to stay healthy and produce than Krejci, who will start his six-year, $43.5 million contract extension this season.

Krejci's been skating for at least one month and doesn't expect to be hindered at all when camp opens. He's excited to get things going.

"Obviously for a couple reasons," Krejci said just before teeing off at the Bruins' annual charity golf tournament Monday. "One, that I got hurt and I didn't play as many games as I would've liked. And also we didn't make the playoffs. So it was a really long offseason. Sometimes it's nice to get away for a couple weeks. But then you're kind of starting to miss it. You know you get bored, so you go on the Internet, you watch TV, and you just read things. Honestly, you kind of get tired of just reading about speculations, trades, and line combinations and point productions and stuff like that. You just want to get it started and make all this speculation (go away). And I want you guys to start writing about different things. I can't wait for that."

The Bruins can't wait to have their 1-2 punch back at center – Krejci and Patrice Bergeron – fully healthy and ready to go. Four times in the first three months of last season Krejci left the lineup with a mystery injury that was widely believed to involve his groin or hip. There's no telling how healthy he ever was and he wouldn't speculate about how many games he felt his best. On Feb. 20 in St. Louis, Krejci might've been feeling his best all season when he blew out a tendon in his knee and had to sit out 15 more games. Although he finished with 31 points in 47 games, he had no goals and five assists in the last nine games of the season, as the Bruins didn't salvage a playoff spot.

New Bruins general manager Don Sweeney did a lot to makeover the roster during the offseason, including trading Krejci's longtime linemate Milan Lucic. That means Krejci is not only going to have to reward the Bruins the way a $7.25 million per year center does, but do it with two completely new linemates (unless David Pastrnak wins the job to Krejci's right after producing there in a handful of games last season). Krejci's well-paid and has plenty of experience around the Bruins and coach Claude Julien, but he doesn't want to start coaching just yet. He toed the party line with a diplomatic answer to a question about his projected linemates.

"I think you guys have been thinking about it more than I have. But we'll see. There's a bunch of guys I would like to play with. So we'll see what happens," he said.

After his breakout season in 2008-09, Krejci had surgery to repair an injured hip. He decided to rest instead of get surgery this time around. Time will tell if that was the wise choice. The Bruins can't afford to have anything less than 100 percent of Krejci in their lineup to put up 60-to-70 points and free up other lines, and even defensemen, by taking on the toughest matchups.

"Just bringing him in definitely gives us a lot of depth and helps and makes it harder for the matchups I guess for the other teams and making decisions that way," Bergeron said. "So it's really exciting to have him healthy."

A great player any time of year, Krejci really made his name world-wide with his 49 points in 47 postseason games during the Bruins two runs to the Stanley Cup Finals. Last season the Bruins didn't present Krejci with an opportunity to add to his playoff resume. The Bruins need him to produce at his playoff best during the regular season in order for him to have a chance to flaunt his postseason prowess again next spring.

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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