139214282So the Boston Bruins are in a bit of a funk.
Marek tracked it back to Tim Thomas's White House/Facebook/Free Citizen rant on today's podcast, but their 4-7-0 mark since then could be coincidental.
More to the point, as Sarah Connors notes on Stanley Cup of Chowder: The losses of Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley to injury have really made a mess of things offensively, to the point where a trade might be a necessity.
But up first: Dramatic lineup changes!
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE reports that the shift of center David Krejci over to the right wing on a line with Milan Lucic and center Chris Kelly — which Claude Julien unveiled during the B's loss to Niklas Backstrom and the Minnesota Wild on Sunday — could stick.
Krejci snapped out of his scoreless February with a goal in Boston's shootout win over the Canadiens, but the pivot was certainly open to the change after managing just one point and a minus-8 in nine games this month.
Krejci was also struggling mightily with five face-off wins in 16 tries against the Wild, so shifting Kelly to center allowed the Czech Republic playmaker to concentrate a little more on the offensive side of the puck. "We had some chances. [Kelly] is a great player and he does a lot of the little things right. I don't usually play the right wing, but I thought we played in their zone a lot," said Krejci. "We had some good chances, but we need to find a way to score."
Haggerty notes that the Bruins have "averaged 1.8 goals per game in the 11 games since Nathan Horton went down with a concussion."
It's an injury that's directly affected Krejci's slump and, in turn, this potential lineup change.
So do the Bruins need a big trade or to just wait out the injuries, asks Amanda Bruno or MassLive.com?
