Bruins Shut Down Krejci For Season, ‘Optimistic’ For Playoffs

BRIGHTON, MA – The bad news is that the Boston Bruins confirmed that David Krejci (lower body) will be shut down for the rest of the regular season and will miss the final two games scheduled for the B’s this week. The good news is that the 36-year-old playmaking center had his best day of rehab on Monday and that has the Bruins “optimistic” that he’s going to be ready to go as the second line center for Boston’s expected start of the Stanley Cup playoffs next week.

David Krejci hasn’t been seen on the ice with the team since leaving practice early a week ago when he was deemed “questionable” to return for game action. He resumed skating on his own on Tuesday.

“Today was his best day. That has us optimistic about where he’s going to be for Game 1 [of the playoffs],” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. “He will not play in either [regular season] game.”

Krejci will end up missing the final six games of the regular season with the injury and has missed 12 games overall this season while posting 16 goals and 56 points along with a plus-23 rating this season. The good news is that Krejci’s injury has allowed the Bruins to get extended looks at Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha in bigger roles at the center position, and the results have been very good like they were in the NHL-record clinching win over the Flyers last weekend.

It was initially thought that Derek Forbort (lower body) skated in a regular practice jersey on Tuesday might also be a signal that he was going to be good to go for the start of the playoffs, but Montgomery indicated that both Forbort and Nick Foligno have “boxes to check” before being ready for game action.

Krejci, Jakub Lauko and Jakub Zboril will be the players sitting out on Tuesday night when the Boston Bruins take on the Washington Capitals, and Linus Ullmark will be the starting goaltender against Washington at TD Garden in his likely final appearance of a magical 2022-23 NHL regular season. Montgomery indicated that the B’s were leaning toward starting Jeremy Swayman in Montreal on Thursday, but no final decision had been made at this point with some fluid plans for the final two games of the regular season.