BUFFALOIt was a move made out of necessity, but David Krejcis first full game playing right wing in the Bruins' 4-2 win over the Blues Wednesday night was a success.
Its not a permanent move by any means and its clearly borne out of the injuries to top right wingers Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley. But Krejci used some surprising physicality and plenty of energy to help his line create a pair of goals even though the playmaking forward didnt get any assists on either of the scores.
He did completely destroy Blues defenseman Kris Russell with a punishing body check behind the St. Louis net that helped create a turnover, and led directly to Milan Lucics tipped goal in front of the net. It was clearly a case of the playmaking center getting to see how the other side lives as a forechecking force.
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Krejci actually said it was easier to simply pin his ears back and attack puck-carriers than be slowed down by the normal defensive responsibilities of the center position.
It was fun. It was something different. I think its a little easier and you save a lot of energy, said Krejci. It helps when Kelly on your line. Hes so good defensively and we worked out who would be the first guy back defensively.
I hadnt played there in a long time. It was one game, but it was definitely something different. When youre in the middle you have defensive responsibilities. When youre on the wing you can go in hard on the fore-check and take a chance hitting a guy like that without worrying about it.
Krejci had a smile on his face while speaking about it, and thats something that hasnt always been present in a season thats presented its share of struggles for the natural centerman.
Lately weve been going up and down. It would be nice to get some wins in a row, said Krejci. We played a really good game against St. Louis and hopefully we do the same thing against Buffalo. It would be nice to get on a roll here.
Coach Claude Julien saw plenty of encouraging things about Krejcis play when watching back to the video on Thursday, and said the right wing experiment will continue Friday night against the Sabres. One of the big keys: the flexibility and hockey intelligence of Krejci and Chris Kelly, who work well together offensively and defensively while solving problems on the fly.
There were moments when Krejci slid right back into his center coverage on the ice purely out of habit, but Kelly instinctively knew to cover for his winger without the hesitation that could cause mistakes. It brought Julien back to memories of his garage hockey days long before hed ever even considered being a Stanley Cup-winning coach.
We needed guys to get out of their comfort zone a little bitand do what needed to be done -- to help us win a hockey game. I thought he was a major contributor on that Lucic goal in my mind. He deserves a lot of credit, said Julien. For a guy that hasnt played the wing much I thought he did a great job. Kelly also did a great job because there were times Krejci would drift toward the middle and Kelly would cover for him. They were reading off each other extremely well. Thats what smart players do.
Its like we talk about in a garage league: just because you start the game at a certain position doesnt mean youre going to be playing there. Those guys did a great job reading off each other and Lucic played his position extremely well.
So its clear the Bruins have brought a blue collar garage league mentality when it comes to surmounting their adversity.
The next order of business for Krejci: get his own offense going and help keep the Bruins team in the winning ways as they attempt to seize the last two games of a six-game road trip.