After weeks of speculation about what he would be doing next season-playing in Boston or perhaps retiring from the NHL altogether-longtime Bruins center David Krejci surprised the hockey world as he publicly revealed today that he will actually be leaving here along with his young family to return to his homeland-the Czech Republic-to continue his playing career there this fall. In his statement that was shared by the black and gold, there was no mention of the word retirement leading a few people to think that he is leaving the door open perhaps to a return to the B's at some point in the near future. For a guy that was a second-round draft pick of Boston in 2004 and who made the big club in 2006-07, it will be strange not to see him on the team at least to begin the 2021-22 campaign.
There was a good reason why fans and the media would refer to "playoff Krejci" since he has that special ability to bring his game to another level in the biggest tilts of the season. He twice has led the entire NHL in postseason scoring as he had 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and then two seasons later as they made it back to the Final, there was Krejci with 26 points (9 goals, 17 assists). In 156 career playoff games with the B's, he has 124 points (42 goals, 82 assists) and he is plus-23 including two overtime goals and two postseason hat tricks. I hope that he comes back to the Bruins if only for the fact that he should get the respect and admiration that he deserves for being such a dependable pro for so long.
His regular season numbers are very good not great with 730 points (215 goals, 515 assists) in 962 career games. What stands out most to me (besides the stellar postseason resume of course) is his remarkable durability for a guy that is neither huge (6-feet tall, 188 pounds) in stature nor blessed with eye-popping skills. Instead, he is an incredible passer (fans would get upset earlier in his career that he didn't shoot the puck more often) that seems to process the game at a faster speed than most others, he's sneaky tough and he protects the puck really well. He is not the fastest guy by any means but you always know when Krejci has the puck on his stick because he appears to be operating at a different speed than everyone else. He only has four 20+ goal seasons but he has reached 50+ assists on three occasions along with another season with 49 helpers.
Patrice Bergeron is a future Hall of Famer and he certainly has earned all the praise that he has gotten over the years but with that said, Boston would not have had as much success without all the contributions of Krejci-their superb second line center for all that time. He has been somewhat of an iron man too, appearing in all 82 regular season games twice, in 81 and 80 once and 79 twice. Nobody does that anymore, that is remarkable consistency in terms of games played at the NHL level. When the Bruins re-signed Taylor Hall last week, I think many (myself included) assumed that meant that Krejci would be returning as well since those two guys plus Craig Smith built such good chemistry when they were put on a line together late last regular season. That also leaves a huge void on the second line for this upcoming season with no obvious replacements especially considering that Charlie Coyle just had knee surgery. Those are issues to worry about for another day though because if that is it for Krejci in a Bruins uniform, we have to applaud one of the great (and more underrated) players in recent history with the team.
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