When the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, David Krejci led the league with 12 goals and 23 points in 25 playoff games.
He’s done even better this time around and in a year where Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, and Patrick Sharp are among the players still active, Krejci is leading the pack with 20 points in 14 contests.
“You know what? It’s nice,” Krejci told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I want to say it’s nice, but I don’t really look at it that much. In the playoffs, it can change the next day. So I just try to stay at the same level at all times.”
Fair enough, but Krejci does seem like he can find an extra level when his team needs him the most. Over the past four campaigns, he’s never recorded more than 62 points in a single regular season, but he ranks second behind only Mike Richards in playoff points since 2010. Krejci has 25 goals and 54 points in 55 postseason games over that span.
Bruins coach Claude Julien suggested that Krejci is the type of player that thrives under the intensity of the playoffs, although Krejci wanted to emphasize that he doesn’t think he gets “bored” during the regular season. He also thinks sometimes too much is made of points.
“It’s not always about points,” Krejci argued. “I feel sometimes I have a good game in the regular season but I don’t have a point, and that’s all the media talks about: You’re a good player if you have points; if you don’t have points, you’re not a good player.
“That’s not this team. We never had the past few years a guy in the top 20 in scoring, so that’s just the way our team is built.”
Well, they got someone playing like an elite scorer right now and it certainly hasn’t hurt.
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