Kalman: If Krejci's Absence Is Long, Bruins Will Miss Playoffs Like Last Year
BOSTON (CBS) -- As his team prepared Monday for life without center David Krejci on a week-to-week basis because of an upper-body injury, Bruins coach Claude Julien took offense to the notion that with Krejci in and out of the lineup last season the Bruins' season went haywire.
The Bruins were 16-13-6 without Krejci and finished the season out of the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
"The thing is, haywire, when you have 96 points, I don't think it's haywire," Julien said after the Bruins practiced without Krejci for the first time since the forward collided with Ottawa forward Bobby Ryan late in the second period Sunday. "I thought, we're four points away from 100, we missed the playoffs and at the end of the day, that's a failure.
"But you know I think we handled it fairly well. At the same time I think it's important again that those guys that are given a challenge take it over. I don't want to comment on what's going to happen here until it happens. We don't know. We're hoping we're going to succeed and we're going to do everything in order to succeed with this situation."
Another standings point here or there last season and the Bruins would've been in the postseason, but their mostly Krejci-less offense wasn't worthy of a crack at the playoffs. Even when Krejci was in the lineup for 47 games, he had just seven goals and 24 assists and was never 100 percent healthy. The Bruins' offense finished 22nd at 2.55 goals per game and their power play ranked 18th at a 17.8 percent success rate.
The Bruins without a healthy Krejci were a completely different team last season and there's no reason so far to believe they'll fare any better without him this season. If anything, Krejci's importance has increased in 2015-16. He's tied for the team lead with 33 points and has helped the Bruins rank third in the NHL in scoring. He's been the right point man on the top power-play unit for the top-ranked man-advantage in the league all season. He's averaging 20:16 of ice time, the most by a Bruins forward and a career high for Krejci. If he keeps up that rate when he returns, he'll be the first Bruins forward to average more than 20 minutes of ice time since Marc Savard in 2007-08.
Krejci has also become a fixture on the Bruins' penalty kill for the first time since 2010-11. The penalty kill got off to a rocky start but has moved up to 13th in the league rankings and had a streak of 26 straight kills until allowing a power-play goal to Ottawa.
Along with fellow center Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Zdeno Chara, Krejci changes the face of the team and its season whether he's in or out of the lineup. Whereas the Bruins were knocking on the door of first place in the Atlantic Division just days ago and remain within striking distance of that spot from their place as the first wild card right now, they're now looking at a stretch of games without Krejci that could put them in a hole out of which they won't be able to climb.
Julien is casting his lot with Ryan Spooner as Krejci's replacement, for now. It'll be interesting to see how the speedy center handles both the pressure of producing offensively against tougher matchups and tougher defensive assignments he and his line will receive. Spooner, who's no one's idea of a future Selke Trophy contender, might even have to pick up some slack on the penalty kill.
Krejci's absence and Spooner's promotion reverberate throughout the lineup. Landon Ferraro is suddenly a third-line center instead of a fourth-line wing. He's been a revelation with favorable matchups and monitored ice time. Now Ferraro will get to prove if he's a top-nine forward for the long haul.
Veteran Max Talbot, who's been assigned to Providence of the AHL a couple of times this season, now becomes a lineup regular. Down the road, the Bruins might give another look to Alexander Khokhlachev, who has looked out of place in his call-ups this season, or some other P-Bruins center that hasn't been battle-tested in the NHL yet. All of this depends on the length of Krejci's absence (he left the rink in a sling Monday) and how the current Bruins fill-ins make out.
The Bruins' depth, during a season of roster transition, was already being tested by the absence of Chris Kelly and Joonas Kemppainen. With plenty of bottom-six talent on hand, the Bruins were able to stem the tide without those two gritty players. Now they're at a decided skill disadvantage without Krejci. Few teams are equipped to get by without a player of Krejci's caliber for a long time, and the Bruins are not in that group.
The Bruins might be able to pack it in and grind out some wins without Krejci for a short while. But if his total missed games starts to reach double digits or worse, this season is going to closely resemble last season and at the end the Bruins' point total won't be enough to play in the playoffs. And the Bruins' failure will be directly related to missing Krejci.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.