When the Boston Bruins open the 2019 Stanley Cup Final on Monday night (8 p.m. ET NBC; Live Stream) they will be playing in their third championship series in the past 10 seasons (tied for the most during that stretch with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks) and going for their second title with this current core of players.
This is shaping up to be one of the most successful eras in the history of the Bruins franchise and the quartet of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara, and David Krejci has played a significant role in that success.
Out of that group the former three get the bulk of the attention, and for very different reasons.
Bergeron is the rock. He is the centerpiece of everything the Bruins do and has been as good of a two-way player as there is in the NHL for more than a decade now.
Chara is one of the greats from his era on the blue line, and along with Bergeron, helped make the Bruins one of the fiercest defensive teams in the league throughout the primes of their career.
As for Marchand … well … he is notable just because he is Brad Marchand. Everything he does is notable. A dominant offensive player, a pest, an agitator, and at the end of the day a player that every general manager in the NHL would love to have on their team, especially at his bargain of a cost against the salary cap.
[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]
The member of that group that tends to get overlooked the most is Krejci, but do not sleep on his production and the impact he has made on the Bruins over the years.
Especially in the playoffs.
While he has always been an excellent player in Boston he has never really been one that will put up huge numbers or finish near the top of the league in any category during the regular season. He is an outstanding second-line center that is going to be a 20-goal, 60-point player. At the start of every season you know exactly what he is going to give you, and he almost never lets you down.
You should also know by now that he is going to continue that production, and often times increase it, come playoff time. This season has been no exception.
Entering the series against the St. Louis Blues Krejci’s 14 points are third on the team (behind only Marchand and David Pastrnak) and continues what has been an outstanding career of postseason performances.
Just take a look at what he has done throughout his career in the playoffs.
- Since the start of the 2010-11 playoffs, the year the Bruins won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Vancouver Canucks in seven games, there are only five players (Sidney Crosby, Logan Couture, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, and Alex Ovechkin) in the NHL that have recorded more points than Krejci’s 80 during that stretch.
- He has reached that level of production while getting almost no boost from the power play, where he has managed just 16 points during that stretch. It is almost entirely even-strength production. His 64 even-strength points since 2010-11 are second only to Crosby’s 67 points, with Krejci having played in four fewer games entering this series.
- He is one of only 20 players in NHL history to have led the postseason in scoring (2010-11 and 2012-13) in scoring in a single postseason. Out of those 20, he is one of just 11 to do it since 1967 (when the league doubled in size from six teams to 12 teams).
- His 101 postseason points for his career are the third most in Bruins history, trailing only Ray Bourque and Phil Esposito. John Buyck and Rick Middleton are the only other players in Bruins history to top the 100-point mark (both with exactly 100), while Bergeron will join that group with one more point in these playoffs.
- This postseason alone he has been held without a point in just four games, and only two of the previous 15 games. He enters the series on a six-game point streak.
Whether the Bruins end up winning this series or not, Krejci has been a significant part of the team’s success both this season and in previous seasons. Outside of one dismal postseason performance in 2013-14 when he recorded just four assists in 12 games, he has been one of the most consistent and productive playoff performers in the league and one of the best in the history of the Bruins franchise.
If you are looking at things in terms of just raw numbers his overall postseason performance is pretty close to his overall regular season performance, which makes sense — he gets a lot of points because he is good, no matter when the games are being played. He averages around 60 points 82 games in the regular season, and his postseason average is around 67 points per 82 games. It is an increase, but not a huge one. Still, any increase in playoff scoring from regular season scoring is an impressive accomplishment because goals are tougher to come by in the playoffs, especially when you are not getting a huge boost from the power play. He has also had multiple postseasons where he has been one of the top scorers in the league, including this one where he enters the Stanley Cup Final in the top-10 across the league.
He may not be the biggest star on the Boston lineup, and he may not always get a lot of attention for what he does, but on the list of most significant players in Bruins history Krejci ranks up there with any of them given what he has done on the biggest stage.
STANLEY CUP FINAL PREVIEW
• Who has the better forwards?
• Who has the better defensemen?
• Who has the better goaltending?
• Who has the better special teams?
• X-factors
• PHT Power Rankings: Conn Smythe favorites
• Roundtable: Secondary scoring, underrated players
• How the Blues were built
• How the Bruins were built
• Stanley Cup Final 2019 schedule, TV info
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
