By Jordan Long
The Boston Bruins made NHL history last year when they finished the regular season at 65-12-5 for a total of 135 points. The wins and the points were the most in NHL history for a single season. Unfortunately, that success didn’t translate to the NHL postseason. They were knocked off in the 1st-round by the Florida Panthers in 7 games. Going into this season, the Bruins will be missing a large part of their offense as center David Krejci retires from the game.
Krejci played all 15 seasons with the Boston Bruins. His NHL journey started in the 2006-2007 season, appearing in 6 games for Boston. He didn’t record a point. The very next year, Krejci showed Boston what he could do at the NHL level, playing in 56 games, scoring 6 goals, and adding 21 assists for a total of 27 points. The Bruins knew they had a special player.
Krejci had two seasons where he had a career high 73 points. Those occurred in 2009 and 2019. Krejci was always known as a scorer for the Bruins. He put up 4 seasons of 20+ goals.
Last year, Krejci suited up in 70 games for the Bruins. He didn’t have the scoring touch he once had, but still was able to feed his teammates for them to score. Krejci totaled 16 goals and 40 assists for 56 points. In the 1st-round loss to Florida, Krejci didn’t play well with just 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points.
Krejci took his time to decide his NHL future. He was a free agent. If Krejci was going to play another year it would have been with the Bruins. In the end, he decided it was best for him to retire.
According to ESPN.com, Krejci said, “After 15 full NHL seasons I have decided to retire from the best league in the world. I have been very lucky to be on so many good teams and play with so many great players.”
Krejci played 1,032 games in a Bruins’ sweater, 5th most in franchise history. During his career, Krejci put up 231 goals which doesn’t seem impressive. What helped the Bruins win games was his ability to use his vision to find his teammates to score, totaling 555 assists, 5th in Bruins’ history.
The Bruins earned a playoff spot 13 times with Krejci. A player wants to play well in the postseason. Krejci did, scoring 43 goals and adding 85 assists for 128 points. The furthest the Bruins advanced with Krejci was the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 and 2018. In 2011, Boston defeated Vancouver in 7 games to win the Cup, Krejci’s only Stanley Cup ring. In 2019, Krejci was on the wrong end when St. Louis beat Boston in 7 games.
Krejci could have played another year if he wanted. He is 37 years old which is getting up there in age for an NHL player. He knew it was time to leave the game. He won a Stanley Cup which is what every player who laces up the skates dreams of doing. Krejci will go down as one of the most consistent Boston Bruins players to play the NHL game.
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