Images and clips of the Boston defender blowing up Blues opponent Robert Thomas are everywhere following Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, but Krug's offensive contributions and solid own-zone play should have put him in the spotlight entering the series.
BOSTON – Believe it or not, Torey Krug was already a very good player before his big hit on Robert Thomas in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. Oh, and about that hit. Crack open the rulebook and you’ll see that it was a textbook case of charging, for which he should have received nothing more than a two-minute penalty. Referees Steve Kozari and Kelly Sutherland didn’t think it was. So that’s a saw-off and we all move on.
Krug’s Boston Bruins teammate David Backes said it was a case of Krug, “establishing himself in the series.” But when it comes to making his mark on these playoffs as a whole, Krug did that a long time ago. The hit aside, he has been an absolute beast for the Bruins in this post-season. He leads all Bruins defensemen with a goal and 12 points and is No. 1 on the Bruins blueline in 5-on-5 shot attempts. But more importantly, he has made the hockey world realize that he’s much more than a good, undersized offensive defenseman.
“The narrative of my career for a long time is just being an offensive guy, a one-way street,” Krug said. “Even after this run I’m still going to have people doubting me, so you just try to play the correct way. That’s been instilled in me since Day 1, not only as a player growing up, but also the day I stepped into this organization, take a lot of pride in both sides of the puck and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
As for the hit itself, it was one of 25 that Krug has in these playoffs going into Game 2 tonight in Boston. “I have a few hits here and there,” Krug said. “If you don’t watch our team that much, you probably don’t realize that because of my stature and all that. But you can go back through the archives and I’m sure you’ll find some.”
Going into the series, much of the narrative surrounding it was that if the bigger, heavier Blues had an advantage in the series, it was in the physical side of the game. But the Bruins almost literally matched the Blues hit-for-hit in Game 1 – the final count was 33-32 in favor of St. Louis – but the Bruins established in that game that they weren’t going to be pushed around. And the Krug hit provided quite an exclamation mark on that statement. Krug will not be in the conversation for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the post-season, but he has been on quite a run since the calendar turned to April.
“Good for Torey,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “He’s had a real good playoff in terms of people know he’s a puck mover and people know he’s got power-play acumen, but he’s played heavy minutes against good players every night. I appreciate that, his teammates appreciate that and he’s building on his overall game. I think he’s always wanted to do that and I think this playoff has allowed him to get out of that label of just an offensive defenseman. And he’s always been a physical guy.”
After the hit, Blues goalie Jordan Binnington and Krug had words and Binnington was asked to share what was discussed. “It was more of stare,” Binnington said. “His pupils were pretty big. I don’t know if he was on something, but he was pretty fired up.”
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