Playoff Krejci, 'fantastic' Kase could make Bruins offense 'dangerous'

If you've followed the Bruins over the last decade-plus, you're probably familiar with the phenomenon known as "Playoff Krejci."

That is the David Krejci who more often than not takes his game to another level in the postseason. The one who has twice led the NHL in playoff scoring, including during the Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup run. The one who has scored a pair of hat tricks in the playoffs as well as a pair of postseason overtime winners.

At this point in his career, though, "Playoff Krejci" cannot be taken for granted. Krejci, now 34, was good for most of the postseason last year, but then he went cold in the Stanley Cup Final, registering zero goals and two assists in the Bruins' seven-game series loss to the Blues.

He also went cold in the second half of this regular season, putting up zero goals and four assists in the Bruins' final 14 games before the pause. Add in a one-point performance in the Bruins' three round-robin games and questions on both of his wings -- about his flagging chemistry with Jake DeBrusk on one side and lack of repetitions with Ondrej Kase on the other -- and it was fair to wonder just what we were going to see from Krejci and his line in the first round.

If their play in the Bruins' 4-3 double-overtime Game 1 win over the Hurricanes was any indication, the decline of Playoff Krejci has been greatly exaggerated. He looked like his old postseason self, and his line was dominant all game long.

They pinned the Hurricanes in their own zone shift after shift, forechecking hard and cycling effectively. Krejci's passes seemed to have a magnetic connection to the tape on his teammates' sticks. They combined for 13 shots on goal, and in the 14 minutes of five-on-five time they played together, the Bruins held a 23-7 advantage in shot attempts and a resounding 13-1 advantage in shots on goal.

Most importantly, they outscored Carolina 1-0, with Krejci giving the Bruins a 3-2 lead early in the third period at the end of another dominant shift in the Hurricanes zone. Kase won a couple key battles during that shift, Krejci created a couple chances, and Kase put a couple shots on net. Eventually one of them led to a juicy rebound, which Krejci collected and calmly slid past Petr Mrazek.

The 'ole doorstep dangle.DK46 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/HXA8mTsLI7

This comes after a strong game for the line in Sunday's round-robin finale against Washington, too. In that game, they scored the Bruins' lone goal (by DeBrusk, with assists to Kase and Krejci) and the team had a 10-5 attempts advantage and 4-1 shots on goal advantage when they were on the ice.

The trio could have scored a couple more goals Wednesday, too. DeBrusk, in particular, appeared to have a goal on his stick a few times, but just couldn't finish. On one, he held onto the puck a split second too long, giving Warren Foegele just enough time to recover and poke it off his stick. Then he rang a shot off the post after a gorgeous saucer pass from Krejci on a two-on-one. Worst of all, he missed a wide-open net from the right doorstep after a nice feed from Chris Wagner.

Generally if you keep creating chances like that, though, eventually they start going in. As evidence, see the Bruins' top line scoring twice Wednesday after shooting a combined 0-for-27 from the field in the round-robin.

There were a couple other hiccups for the trio -- Kase taking an offensive zone penalty comes to mind -- but for the most part it was a very encouraging effort, especially considering they had only had one game and a handful of practices together prior to Wednesday.

"If they can do that every night, we're going to be a very dangerous hockey club," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of Krejci's line. "I thought Jake from the first shift on, second effort. Krech was going. Good in the circle. Solid, solid with the puck and away from the puck to get it back. That's the formula we'd like, I'm not going to lie to you. I'd love to replicate that every night with those guys.

"Kase ... I thought he was fantastic. He's on pucks all night, played his game. Had some good looks. A nice play on Krejci's goal. That line arguably was, you always look at the tape, and they're probably our most dangerous line tonight."

Just as it has been for the last several years, secondary scoring was probably the biggest question for the Bruins entering these playoffs. But if Krejci's line can continue to be as dangerous as they were in Game 1, and hopefully finish one or two more of their golden opportunities, then the Bruins will be in good shape on that front.

Put David Krejci in the saucer pass Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/nh4bJZajXg

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