The Philadelphia Flyers had received seven of eight video games, beating some good groups within the course of, and have been beginning to have designs on a wild card spot.
Then they got here to Boston to face the Bruins on David Krejci Day on Monday and, effectively, you possibly can guess what occurred.
Krejci celebrated his 1,000th NHL recreation, all with the B’s, by notching three helpers because the B’s rampaged over the beforehand scorching Flyers, 6-0, on the Garden, pushing their file to 34-5-4.
Ho. Hum.
Befitting a day that celebrated Krejci, it was the artful centerman’s Czech-mates who reaped the riches with David Pastrnak (34, 35) and Pavel Zacha (6, 7) main the best way on the aim sheet. Brad Marchand (14) and Matt Grzelcyk (3) added the opposite tallies. Krejci was a plus-4 on the day.
Jeremy Swayman (29 saves) recorded his first shutout of the season.
This one may have been a entice recreation for the B’s. They have been coming off an enormous, emotional win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, maybe the perfect recreation of the 12 months, and it may be tough for some gamers to get the blood flowing for matinees.
But Krejci’s teammates weren’t about to permit a letdown to occur.
“No question, his 1,000th game, I think a lot of players have so much respect for him and rightfully so,” mentioned coach Jim Montgomery. “He’s a Bruins legend and he showed why tonight. He makes everyone around him better.”
There was solely factor that didn’t go proper, at the least in considered one of his teammate’s thoughts.
“I was mad. I really wanted him to score,” mentioned a grinning Pastrnak. “But that’s Krech. He really loves to pass. The kind of player he is, it makes him happy when he can set up players to score a goal. There aren’t many playmakers like him. For me it’s a huge honor to be his teammate.”
It was Krejci who assisted on Pastrnak’s first NHL aim, towards the Flyers in Philly on Jan. 10, 2015. If there’s a David Krejci Appreciation Club, Pastrnak is the Grand Pooh-bah.
“He’s like my big brother, right?” mentioned Pastrnak. “He’s 10 years older than me, but at the same time he’s become one of the closest friends I’ve got. At first, I was idolizing him as a kid coming into the league young and learning from him every day. Now we are the closest friends. It’s very special and I’m very happy for him and I’m very happy I’ve found the friendship. Obviously, he’s an unbelievable player. He’s accomplished a lot in this organization so he deserves the recognition.”
Unlike Saturday, there was no back-and-forth drama, solely good instances on Monday.
The first Krejci helper got here at 4:38 of the primary. Pastrnak thwarted a breakout try by Tony De’Angelo simply contained in the Philly blue line and Krejci took management of it. He threw it into house for Zacha, who despatched an ideal go from the nook to Pastrnak for a tap-in.
Then, at 15:05, Krejci despatched a comfortable go over to Zacha on the prime of the appropriate circle and the wing received all of his 6-foot-4, 200-pound body into his one-timer, beating Carter Hart with an absolute rocket for his sixth of the 12 months. Zacha has had his points with ending this 12 months, however he left little doubt on that one.
The good vibes have been flowing and, by the point the second interval was 5 minutes previous, the B’s doubled their lead. First, at 3:55, Marchand managed a bouncing puck, fought off Ivan Provorov on the prime of the crease and tucked a backhander behind Hart for the 3-0 lead.
Zacha then made it 4-0 at 4:41 when he took a feed from Krejci, who had stolen the puck within the impartial zone, and, with the veteran centerman driving to the online, he threw it into the mass of our bodies touring to the online. It someway ended at the back of it and, on the first TV timeout of the interval, Hart was changed by Samuel Ersson.
Despite their unimaginable file, the B’s have needed to grind out a variety of wins. There haven’t been a ton of laughers like Monday’s. But the B’s completed this one off in serious-minded vogue. Crazy comebacks have been considerably widespread this season, however the Flyers didn’t have a prayer of that on Monday.
“We ask forwards to reload right away when we don’t have possession, especially in the offensive zone. And we ask defensemen to have good gaps so that we can keep pucks in the offensive zone,” mentioned Montgomery. “And the defensemen and forwards were playing real cohesively that way. That led to a lot of turnovers with good sticks. When we’re playing like that, with our habits and details, we’re a lot to handle.”
Pastrnak added a power-play aim early within the third interval, Grzelcyk scored at 4-on-4 and the cruise management button was activated. The final bit of labor was to kill off a prolonged 5-on-3 to get Swayman his shutout. And the B’s received that proper, too.
It was that sort of day on the Garden.
Source: www.bostonherald.com