Boston Bruins: David Krejci Under Pressure

With only five games left in the regular season, the Boston Bruins are on the cusp of being kicked out of the playoffs for the second straight year. The B’s have two ugly games on the road against Western powerhouses St. Louis and Chicago, and then finish out the regular season with three games at home. The Boston Bruins are certainly looking down that barrel, and it’s certainly added a level of pressure and tension in the locker room.

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“Everybody always asks that questions. Do we sense pressure, or do sense this?” said Bruins bench boss Claude Julien on the obvious pressure the team is under. “Whatever word you want to use, everybody is going to use a different word: urgency, commitment, destiny(That last word is a bit of a stretch Claude.). All these words are being used. I don’t want to complicate it so much as to just go out there…we know we have to win hockey games, so just go out and do it. It’s as simple as that. Let’s not spend too much time thinking about it versus more time preparing for it.”

Pressure is certainly an appropriate word for the Bruins right now. There are players who aren’t putting up the numbers the B’s need right now. They’ve only scored 16 goals in their last 10 games. The Bruins have been relying too much on the Patrice Bergeron line to handle the majority of the work load. Agree with or not, a lot of pressure from the fans has been centered around David Krejci.

Krejci hasn’t been entirely invisible in the B’s last ten games. He put in a goal against San Jose, and has five assists spread out through those games. He’s also been above 50-percent in the faceoff circle in seven out of those ten games. Unfortunately, he’s also taken some bad penalties (like 2012 Brad Marchand bad) that have hurt the Bruins in their attempts to put more points up for the team.

Krejci is a seven-million dollar player for the Bruins. While he has put up a respectable 56 points this season (good enough for 40th in the league), some of the critics and the fans believe this is a ‘disappointing’ season for the 29-year old Czech forward.

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Now, Krejci is committing himself to do whatever he can do help the B’s win. He’s focusing on the last five games of the season, and wants to leave it all out on the ice with a strong finish that helps keep the Bruins in the playoff race.

“This is the first time I’ve heard this word in a long time, so I don’t think this word should even be in this room,” said Krejci, about the pressure the team was under to succeed in the home stretch. “It’s more like urgency more than pressure. We know we what we came to do here, and the goal was to make the playoffs. In the playoffs you never know.

“We have five games left, so you just leave everything out there. There are no regrets after games. You just go out and play as hard as you can, and you do everything you can to help the team win. Obviously people talk about [last year], but it’s so far back in the back of my head. There are too many positive things going on, so you don’t let those negative things creep in there. You stay positive, battle hard and do whatever you can to help the team.”

Krejci and the Bruins will show that commitment when they take on the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night.

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