Speaking to
Miroslav Horak of isport.cz last week, former Bruin David Krejci admitted he still checks in to see how the Bruins are doing.
Nice, right?
While he’s happy to see the Bruins are finally turning a corner and starting to play well with some new faces in the lineup, it’s a former teammate and his new line that has irked him a bit.
Since head coach Bruce Cassidy took David Pastrnak off of the top line, putting him to the right of Taylor Hall and Erik Haula, Pastrnak’s once slow start to the season has gone from zero to 60 at the snap of a finger.
Pastrnak scored twice in Monday’s 7-3 victory over the Washington Capitals, the Bruins fifth win in six contests in 2022. With his two goals, Pastrnak is now up to five goals in his last four games, 13 in total.
The addition of Pastrnak to the second line has kicked Hall’s game into gear as well. Hall now has eight points in his last six games, a six-game point streak.
But for Krejci, who continues to play professional hockey back home in the Czech Republic, he can’t help but wonder why Cassidy never gave Pastrnak and Krejci more time together when things were not going well.
“Coach Cassidy rarely let the two of us play together. It had to be so that he split the first line and put Pasta to me. It was a maximum of two matches,” Krejci said to Horak (translated via google translate).
“Years later, I leave Boston and suddenly it is possible. That struck me. He always told me that there was no reason to take Pasta off the first line and that it would be as short as possible to distribute the forces. I had to take it. But now Pasta has five games on the line with Taylor Hall and Erik Haula. Strange.”
Sorry David, but the Hall, Haula and Pastrnak second line divorce is not coming anytime soon. It’s clear Hall is enjoying his time with Pasta.
“He [Hall] likes playing with him [Pastrnak] as much as Krech, huh? Who doesn’t, right?,” Cassidy asked. “He’s a pretty explosive player. He finds the ice, can finish plays and can pass as well as he shoots. It’s a good combination right now.”
In the 168:22 of five-on-five ice time Hall and Pastrnak have spent together this season, they’ve scored nine times while generating 98 scoring chances, 33 in high-danger areas.
Then, you go and add the speed of Haula to the mix and all of a sudden you have a talented second line that is complementing each other very well.
“You just got to make sure you have a guy in the middle that’s going to play a good 200-foot game for those guys, take care some of the other details. Like some of the other good offensive players, (when) they get the puck, they’re going,” said Cassidy.
“I think Erik Haula has done a nice job in there sort of keeping that glue in the middle of the ice for those guys. Those guys are clicking right now, that’s what we hoped for when we made a few changes.”
I’m sure even Haula himself wasn’t expecting to be centering the second line, never mind Hall and Pastrnak, when he signed with the Bruins this offseason. But a struggle to score goals up and down the lineup forced Cassidy’s hand and has provided immediate results.
“I think he’s a guy that has proven he can play with really good players, he did in Vegas and Carolina,” Hall said of Haula. “He’s been really good for us, he brings a lot of speed through the middle for us, a lot of pace.”
The Bruins are finally finding success offensively. The shakeup of the top-six has helped the Bruins become a more potent team offensively.
We all know how well Brad Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak play together. We’ll see it when the Bruins are desperate for goals.
But for now, the Bruins are going to roll with their new and improved second line. Krejci may want to look away for a bit.
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