Krejci Finds It ‘Strange’ Boston Bruins Now Moving Pastrnak Around

Some interesting thoughts from old friend David Krejci about his time away from the Boston Bruins and watching his friends from afar.

The 35-year-old center is obviously enjoying his time in the native Czech Republic and judging by his wife’s Instagram account the rest of the Krejci family is truly enjoying the new experience and Czech culture as well.

Krejci has 17 goals and 34 points in 35 games for Olomouc this season and remains very noncommittal about a potential return to Boston, though he does admit some of his old teammates have reached out to him about coming back.

“A couple of [teammates] and other people asked me if I would make the trip back [to Boston],” said Krejci, in an interview with isport.cz this week. “But there’s no answer, no one knows her at this point, including me.

“Every time I look at the highlights, I read about what is happening [with the Bruins] in the local newspaper. I know I can’t believe everything that is written [in the media]. Anyway, I still watch Boston, I can see the way they play, what they call it, how the Bruins are reported in the media. I think I’m in the picture. In the beginning, the boys did not do very well, which makes sense. Fresh faces always take a while to get used to. But they’ve gotten up [to speed], hopefully it will work for them.”

Perhaps even more interesting are Krejci’s thoughts on 25-year-old David Pastrnak after watching him skate with Taylor Hall for the last handful of games. First, there was the mention about possible difficulties for the energetic, fun-loving Pastrnak with his two best friends on the team, Krejci and defenseman Torey Krug, having moved from Boston.

Krejci was very interested in playing more with Pastrnak during their time together in Boston, but it was something that happened only sporadically with the Perfection Line’s standing as one of the NHL’s best lines. The playmaking center called it “strange” that the Boston Bruins coaching staff seems much more willing to move Pastrnak around this season than they did at any point when No. 46 was on the roster and clearly interested in hooking up with his fellow Czech.

“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. Years later, I leave Boston and suddenly it’s possible. That struck me,” said Krejci to iSport.cz via google translate. “The coach always told me that there was no reason for Pasta’s removal from the first line and that it would be as short as possible to distribute the forces. I had to take it. But now Pasta is five or how many matches in the line with Hall and Haula. Strange.”

It’s worth nothing that Cassidy told the Bruins media earlier this week that he discussed the possible line changes with all three members of the Perfection Line before shaking things up ahead of a three-game winning streak.

Now, in the interest of full honest Krejci and Pastrnak did get their chances to play together over the years. There were flashes here and there with overtime game-winners and last season both Marchand and Pastrnak blew up offensively with Krejci centering them while Patrice Bergeron was out with an injury.

But Krejci and Pastrnak never played together for any extended amount of time and clearly that still bugs the ex-Bruins center as he watches the Black and Gold from afar.

“We were in harmony with Pasta, I dare say that whenever we played together, it suited us and it was useful for the team. Sometimes the coach put us in overtime or four against four, the mutual chemistry was there right away, we were scoring goal,” said Krejci. “Now I just think that [Cassidy] could have taken Pasta out of the first one for me and everything could have looked different. But it’s the way it is, I don’t blame the coach.”

Meanwhile, back in Boston the Bruins haven’t been able to fully replace Krejci’s No. 2 center spot while rearranging things and putting Erik Haula there with Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak since the holiday break. Krejci had eight goals and 44 points in 51 games last season and appeared to have immediate chemistry with Hall after he was traded from Buffalo, but the lure of being close to his Czech family after living in the US for the last 16 years made it attractive for Krejci to go home this season.

It also sure sounds like Krejci is hinting that some things might have to change a bit before he’d consider coming back to the Boston Bruins, even if he didn’t say it in actual words with a big assist to Google translate. Interesting things to think about as the Boston Bruins are very clearly in the middle of a big transitional season that has finally seemed to settle in as the B’s turned the page onto what’s been a mostly successful 2022 thus far.