The Boston Bruins’ two-point divisional lead over the Ottawa Senators is a bit deceptive because they have four games in hand, but it does hint at two squads going in different directions.
While Ottawa is surging behind a dynamic offense and a do-enough-to-win D, the Bruins are starting to stumble in some part because of injuries to forwards. With Nathan Horton (concussion) and Rich Peverley (knee injury) sidelined for what looks to lengthy amounts of time, it’s looking like picnic time is over for Claude Julien.
CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty reveals that Julien is beginning to try new things - including moving talented but struggling center David Krejci to right wing. It seems that experiment might just stick for a while, too.
“I thought [Kelly] has done pretty well with some guys that can score this year,” Julian said. “I told Krejci to move to the right side and I thought they responded well. They did some good things. There’s a good chance we may go back with that.”
As Haggerty points out, the reformatted line combos created 22 shots in the third period on Sunday but still couldn’t beat Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom.
Sometimes you just run into a keyed-in netminder, which Backstrom certainly was in compiling an impressive 48-save shutout. The odds are strong that the Bruins will find themselves on the right side of most battles if they can produce those kinds of efforts more often than not - wherever Krejci might be on the ice.