You watch him play with veteran savvy and the vision of a player wise beyond his years and you forget –  Boston Bruins center David Krejci is only 22 years old.

Krejci is still the Bruins’ second-leading points man with 64 and fourth-leading goal-scorer with 21. But other than a tough-angle goal through Cristobal Huet’s pads March 7,  Krejci hasn’t scored a goal — and only added four assists — in his last 15 games since a one-goal, one-assist game Feb. 17 at Carolina.

However, that’s where Krejci’s maturity comes in. In the past, he might’ve sulked over his lack of production. But now just less than a month from his 23rd birthday and completing his second full NHL season, Krejci has seen the light as far as putting the team first.

“Now is the time of year that you’ve got to sacrifice your (numbers) and you’ve got to do more stuff for the team,” he told TheBruinsBlog.net after practice today in Wilmington, Mass. “At the end of the year, I want to look at the statistics for the team and really win something than to be out of the playoffs and be happy with myself. I don’t want that. So you’ve just got to sacrifice for the team and do those things I don’t like to do. But it’s going to help us.” (more…)

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins should have forwards Phil Kessel and David Krejci back in the lineup tonight when they host the Ottawa Senators at TD Banknorth Garden.

Both players missed practice due to physical ailments yesterday but took part in an optional morning skate today. Kessel, who suffered a left arm injury Tuesday night in Columbus when Jan Hejda bumped him into the wall during a pursuit of a dump-in, declared himself fit and ready to go. As for the hit by Hejda, the speedy winger said:

“Obviously, it didn’t feel great (at the time). But again, it’s part of the game — you get bumps and bruises out there,” he explained.

There was no news on what was ailing Krejci, but he said he’s fit and ready to go. And he knows that in order to break out of his doldrums — one goal in his last 10 games, three in his last 20 — he, like his teammates, have to make things happen around the net. (more…)

Wheeler

Just a couple weeks ago, I was ready to annoint David Krejci’s line — completed by Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler — as the Boston Bruins’ No. 1. But as of right now, that trio can’t claim that status, and not just because Phil Kessel and Milan Lucic have gotten healthy and rejoined Marc Savard.

The numbers right now for what’s generously called the Bruins’ second line are a bit ugly. The rookie Wheeler has popped in just one goal in the club’s last 13 games. Krejci has just one goal (scored on the power play off a defenseman’s leg) in the last eight games. And Ryder, who missed one game with the flu, has just one goal in the last seven outings.

Wheeler, for one, isn’t worried.

“Last week, how many posts did I hit? I hit three last week. It’s just, you know? Sometimes the puck doesn’t go in the net,” the left winger explained after practice today at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, Mass. “Maybe earlier in the season all three of those would’ve gone in. You never know. I gauge myself based on the scoring chances you get. As long as you’re getting chances, what else can you really do?” (more…)

Krejci

Everyone can see that there’s a link between Boston Bruins center David Krejci and winger Blake Wheeler when the two 22-year-old forwards are on the ice together.

Whether they’re skating as two-thirds of a line 5-on-5, hooking up on the power play or even killing a penalty together, both players seem to have a sixth sense that always allows them to find one another. That’s why they’ve been on a line together almost the entire season, and they’ve been a major factor in the Bruins’ tremendous start.

What not many get to see is the way the American and the Czech teammates get along once the skates and sweaters are off. Often kidding around with each other and discussing any number of topics, Krejci and Wheeler have become close friends.

“We have the same girlfriend,” Krejci recently joked when asked why he and Wheeler get along so well. (more…)

Krejci

The Boston Bruins’ penalty kill has been on a roll — having blanked the oppositions’ power plays over each of the last five games heading into today’s showdown with Buffalo at the TD Banknorth Garden.

The kill is a perfect 20-for-20 over that stretch. But the killers aren’t just getting the job done in their own zone, they’re also putting the heat on with offensive pressure. In the last two weeks Blake Wheeler and Martin St. Pierre have netted shorthanded goals for the Bruins. And Wheeler and David Krejci have formed a dangerous duo that clears the zone with ease and then can make things happen at the other end.

“It’s trying to find ice time sometimes for players, and putting them in positions again that they can help your hockey club,” head coach Claude Julien recently said about Krejci and Wheeler getting time on the PK. “And they’ve just seemed to build pretty good chemistry where they do a pretty good job of killing penalties. But they’re also, every game so far lately, they’ve been a threat 4-on-5. They get the puck out and they get some scoring chances as well.”

Krejci

With offensive superstars like Marc Savard and Phil Kessel ahead of him in the Boston Bruins’ line-up, it can be difficult for center David Krejci to get some attention.

Well, if he keeps having weeks like last week, he’ll always be in the same sentence as his more famous cohorts. In three games during the week that ended Dec. 21, Krejci posted 4-3-7 totals and a plus-3 rating. For his efforts, he is the Bruins of the Week. (more…)

Krejci

BOSTON — Center David Krejci’s first NHL hat trick in the Boston Bruins’ 8-5 win over Toronto tonight at the TD Banknorth Garden ignited a swarm of hats to fly onto the ice — albeit with a little delay.

But alas, the second-year forward was not graced by the toss of a bra the way his longtime linemate Blake Wheeler was earlier this season after his first NHL hat trick.

“No, I wasn’t as popular as Blake,” quipped Krejci, continuing to prove that English is catching up to Czech in the race to be his No. 1 language. (more…)

It doesn’t matter if he’s at even strength, on the power play or, like Thursday night in Tampa, killing a penalty — Boston Bruins center David Krejci keeps finding ways to put up points.

During a two-game week that ended today, the Bruins were 2-0-0 and Krejci put up one goal, three assists and a plus-3 rating. For his efforts, Krejci is my Bruin of the Week.

Krejci’s one goal this week was his first shorthanded score of the year, and it was a thing of beauty. He dragged the puck around a sliding defender and then found the back of the net just before he was run into the boards. He recovered well enough to celebrate with his teammates — a familiar sight these days.

Other players who were considered: winger Phil Kessel (3-0-3, plus-2) and defenseman Zdeno Chara (0-1-1, plus-2, great leadership in the face of the club missing three of its top six).

Even Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has noticed that the best serum for a slumping winger has been to play alongside center David Krejci. (more…)

You’ll find fewer plays more beautiful than the one that led to David Krejci’s goal in the Boston Bruins’ 4-2 win over Florida tonight when you’re soaking in Friday night highlights in the morning.

The second-year center stole the puck at the Boston blue line and dashed up ice, but recognized he didn’t have enough speed going for a breakaway, so he slowed to let the play develop. Next thing you know, he feeds Chuck Kobasew, who shoots one off Panthers defenseman Noah Welch and Krejci, heading to the net, taps the puck in.

With so many guys always trying to do things 100 miles per hour, it’s rare to see a play like Krejci’s made in the NHL.

“You don’t think about it. You go every shift up there …  you give 100 percent, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Mostly allergic to comparing his players to other players, past and present, Bruins head coach Claude Julien still connected a line between Krejci and the play he made, and other one-time playmakers.

“He controls the play so well, and he also controls the pace of it too,” Julien said. “And I’ve seen players in the past, that they were extremely good at that. I remember J.F. Sauve from the Nordiques was one of those guys that would make those plays, slow things down, and we’ve got other players. … John Chabot that’s now a coach at the Islanders, too, and they’re gifted with the stick and they find seams.”