Bruins hope David Krejci's injury is not serious

By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com

Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy does not believe that the lower body injury that hit David Krejci in Monday's pre-Flyers qualifying match was serious.

All that Cassidy said about Krejci was also encouraging. This gives the image of a reciprocal decision not to try their luck in a game completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But Cassidy has already said those last words, especially with Kevan Miller just before the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. We are still waiting to see Miller come back in the game, about five months later, and change because everything was going well. .

But the Bruins certainly hope that Cassidy will be on this roll.

Krejci's numbers are often scrutinized a year ago.

Krejci not only played 82 of 42 games in Boston last year, he also tied his career points record with 73 points. A friendly reminder: he did it while skating with a revolving door of the linemen on his right, and with Jake DeBrusk who has trouble finding his game for the first half of the regular season. Seriously, do you know the three most common right-hand skaters from Krejci in front of DeBrusk? They were Danton Heinen (146 minutes), Joakim Nordstrom (112 minutes) and Peter Cehlarik (105 minutes). These three players combined for 22 goals all last season.

But this lack of a year of support from his choice and the continuity of his teammate did not prevent Krejci from averaging 3.06 points per 60 minutes of play, which was the 30th best mark among the 150 NHL forwards with at least 1,200 minutes. Ice weather in 2018-19. With 3.06 points out of 60, Krejci is a more effective player than Claude Giroux, Tyler Seguin, Nicklas Backstrom, Jonathan Toews and Logan Couture, in case you're wondering.

Often labeled with outdated labels "prone to injury," Krejci has also been a model of consistency in recent years, since he has played 299 games out of 328 possible over the last four seasons (meaning that "I'm not sure about it"). it was available 91.1% of the time).

The Bruins are also desperately trying to find the best option for the second-line right wing, and it's hard to do it without Krejci, the distributor and pacemaker of the line, on the ice and in action.

In other words, having a one-legged Krejci would be a fatal blow to a Boston team already doing its best to handle the chronic injury to the groin that apparently seems to haunt the center of foreground Patrice Bergeron until the end of his career.

By now, the Bruins are certainly better placed than expected to treat an injury to Krejci.

Charlie Coyle, who would have slipped to second place in Krejci, was Boston's best player this preseason. Brad Marchand said the Weymouth, Massachusetts, had "dominated" the training camp since the jump. But removing Coyle from his center in the middle of the third row robs the Bruins of what is perhaps their greatest strength – the Bruins are well placed to have what could be their most dominant center group out of four in terms of possession of pucks – and puts them back into the situation they were in for the first half of last season, with a rotating selection of players who might be able to do what they want to do in the middle of their third line.

If Krejci is missing real At the time, the Bruins relaunched a third-line competition between Trent Frederic, Jack Studnicka, Sean Kuraly and Par Lindholm. David Backes and Chris Wagner also have experience at the center, but Cassidy never really considered a viable option.

It is hard to like any of these options.

Frederic, a 2016 first-round pick who has played 15 games with the Big B last year, remains what appears to be a long-term plan for the Bruins. Especially when it comes to generating offensive chances at the professional level. This training camp also did little to change this short-term vision of the Missouri native, as Frederic did not score and scored just two shots on goal in over 43 minutes. ice cream in pre-season. It's also interesting to note that the Bruins hardly used it as a third-row center against this sample of 15 games a year ago, as Frederic did not overshadow the 12-minute mark of time lost in the ice in these games until the last game, a meaningless regular season final against Tampa Bay.

Studnicka, meanwhile, did not seem to be ready for the NHL in his pre-season playoffs. Its reduced use would indicate that the B's are not quite sold on Studnicka, which will absolutely suffer from Shiny New Toy's disease from many people desperate to see it in an NHL jersey coming out of the door, giving them enough against the men against whom he would play in the NHL. And if we're honest, with Studnicka being the team's main hope, we should not even consider the value of 10 to 12-minute nights in the NHL and 17 to 20-minute nights in the AHL. a useful debate.

The Bruins started the 2018-1919 season with Kuraly as a third-line center. Although this is not really the best option, Cassidy's use of the Kuraly line has almost made them the real third line almost every night. Given their progress in the playoffs of last year, whether with Noel Acciari (now with the Panthers) or Chris Wagner or Joakim Nordstrom, the irresponsible attitude without a prisoner of this line has makes an absolute terror for the opposition. It remains to be seen whether this mentality and this force resist or not over the minutes of the third line.

Lindholm may seem like an off-board option for the Bruins, but the 27-year-old is not far removed from being a Swedish league player at one point per game, and the Bruins seem to like may be able to provide to their team an in-depth role in what has been a positive pre-season show. The confrontations could be a bit of a problem when it comes to trusting Lindholm to record the third-row pivot minutes, as he only won 14 of his 30 battles at the forefront of the pre-season. season.

Another way to read this: the Bruins can not lose Krejci.

The Bruins are scheduled for two ice sessions at the Warrior Ice Arena Tuesday from 10:30, and the involvement (or lack of) Krejci and his subsequent update should give us a better indication of the seriousness of his situation.