If someone had told you before the season that, even with Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy missing time, the Bruins would have the best record in the NHL through the first month-plus, your first reaction probably would have been disbelief.
Once you got past that, you might have thought about how many things would need to go right for that to happen. Somewhere near the top of that list, you probably would have put the Taylor Hall-David Krejci-David Pastrnak line. Surely if the Bruins were going to get off to such a hot start, that line had to have hit the ground running.
Well, the Bruins do have the best record in the league, but the Krejci line has actually been one of the few areas of the roster that really hasn't taken off yet.
In 72 5-on-5 minutes with Hall, Krejci and Pastrnak on the ice together, the Bruins have merely broken even, scoring three goals and giving up three. They've been outshot 40-35.
That combined with the Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jake DeBrusk line not creating much 5-on-5 offense either led coach Jim Montgomery to put Pastrnak with Marchand and Bergeron over the weekend, with DeBrusk moving to the second line with Krejci and Hall.
Pastrnak is producing no matter where he is. He's currently tied for third in the NHL in points. Not to completely absolve him of blame, but he wasn't really the issue.
Krejci, back after a year playing in Czechia, has four even-strength points in 13 games and one point in five games since returning from an upper-body injury. Hall started slow while returning from an injury of his own, but then seemed to get on track with eight points in a seven-game stretch from Oct. 20-Nov. 3. However, Hall has recently slowed down again, matching Krejci with one point in the last five games.
Whether it's Pastrnak or DeBrusk on the right, the Bruins would like to see more production from Hall and Krejci. We won't go so far as to say they "need" it, because they seem to keep winning no matter what, but it would be nice. Eventually, they'll probably need it.
Remember: Two years ago, when Hall first arrived in Boston, he and Krejci clicked right away and dominated together. And it wasn't with Pastrnak on their line; it was with Craig Smith. In their 16 regular-season games together, the Bruins outscored opponents 13-1 when they were on the ice and outshot them 121-61.
So, where did that go? How did they go from such a dominant partnership to one that has possession numbers below 50% and can probably best be described as "fine"?
"That's the way it goes, right? It doesn't always go according to plan," Hall said in appearance on WEEI's Skate Podcast. (Listen to the full episode in the audio player at the top of this post.)
Hall isn't panicking and remains confident that he and Krejci will get better.
"Ultimately, we've found a way to contribute to a team that's 14-2. That's the great part, knowing that we maybe have more to give, and we're gonna get better as the season goes on," Hall said. "Maybe a bit unrealistic to expect Krech to be guns blazing right off the bat. He played a year abroad. He's away from his family. It's a different situation for him than when he left. And I haven't, maybe the last five or six games, I haven't been as good as I want to be either. Obviously my first five games weren't great either. I've had some moments as well.
"But that's hockey. You're always looking for ways to improve and find ways to get better. With David and I, we both have a lot of confidence that as the year goes on, we're gonna be a really good line and a really good duo, no matter if we're together or not. There's not a lot of guys I'd rather play with than Krech. So, I think we're gonna find our stride and hopefully be as consistent as possible."
The key to finding that stride may very well lie in the defensive zone. Ideally, the Bruins' second line is generating scoring chances both off the rush (with the speed of Hall on one wing and either Pastrnak or DeBrusk on the other) and in zone (with a cycle game and the playmaking ability of all three players, especially Krejci).
Both are much harder to do when you're spending time defending in your own zone. More energy is spent just trying to win possession in the first place, which means clean breakouts become harder, which means transitioning with speed becomes harder, which means entering the offensive zone cleanly and putting defenses on their heels becomes harder.
"I think we're probably just defending too much," Hall said. "That's not what we want to be doing, right? We want to be on the attack. We want to be on offense. And we reviewed a few things actually [Tuesday morning] that we can do better, I can do better in our own end to exit the zone quicker, because when they come in our end, it seems like they're able to spend a bit of time there.
"When you're in your end 10, 15 seconds, that's half your shift basically that you're occupied in your end. I just think we're defending a bit too much, so if we can clear that stuff up, the offense is gonna take care of itself. I don't think there's a lot of things to fix there. We just have to get to that point and get ourselves in the offensive zone and get the puck on our stick a bit more."
There was a flash of what they can do in the offensive zone in Sunday night's win over the Canucks. In the first period, Hall, Krejci and DeBrusk, along with Hampus Lindholm and Connor Clifton on the blue line, got the cycle game going for an extended o-zone shift. Hall eventually circled around the net and found Clifton pinching into the high slot for a one-timer that gave Boston a 1-0 lead.
Montgomery believes it's only a matter of time before we see that more often.
"I thought they were really good in the first period last game," he said Tuesday. "Then the game got a lot of special teams both ways, and that disrupts everybody. But I think if they have the same relentless attitude on top of pucks, and supporting each other, they're too good of players to not have success 5-on-5."
