BOSTON — Comparisons to Bruins legend Bobby Orr should be high praise for any defenseman, especially for one who plays in Boston, but Torey Krug doesn’t believe they are justified.
"Pretty ridiculous," Krug said after the Bruins’ morning skate at the Garden Wednesday before they met the Blues in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final. "I can’t even come up with words. I think it’s ridiculous, but hopefully it turns out to be something we remember for a long [...]
BOSTON — Comparisons to Bruins legend Bobby Orr should be high praise for any defenseman, especially for one who plays in Boston, but Torey Krug doesn’t believe they are justified.
“Pretty ridiculous,” Krug said after the Bruins’ morning skate at the Garden Wednesday before they met the Blues in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final. “I can’t even come up with words. I think it’s ridiculous, but hopefully it turns out to be something we remember for a long time.”
Many have compared a helmet-less Krug going airborne late in a 4-2 victory over the Blues Monday in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final after his vicious body check against Blues forward Robert Thomas to Orr sailing through the air after scoring in overtime to complete a four-game sweep of the Blues in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals.
A statue of Orr hanging in mid-air with his stick in his right hand stands outside the Garden. Orr wasn’t wearing a helmet in 1970, but back then no one did in the NHL.
With the Bruins leading 3-2 in the third period on Monday, Krug had his helmet ripped off during a scuffle with David Perron in front of the Bruins net and he didn’t bother to retrieve it before heading down the other end of the ice.
“I’m just glad I got a haircut a few days ago,” he joked after the game.
Despite not wearing his helmet, he plowed into Thomas so hard he catapulted over him. The Garden crowd went wild.
“It just ends up being one of those moments,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Wednesday, “that people are talking about that I think honestly because his helmet was off. If his helmet wasn’t off, are we talking about it? It’s a hit that happens a lot in physical series. We saw that against Columbus I don’t know probably 10 times at least, those big hits. But again it was a bit of iconic moment because the hair’s flying and the way he fell and it’s good for hockey I think if they’re talked about positively.”
It’s being talked about a lot, especially on social media.
“It’s taken off,” Krug said. “I’m not personally on social media right now, but I have a lot of friends and family that are and I’ve received a lot of text messages. It’s taken off and it’s pretty cool for sure, but the eye’s on the prize right now.”
The 5-foot-9, 186-pound Krug isn’t as big as the 6-foot, 192-pound Thomas, but he didn’t care. He wanted to fire up his teammates.
“That was something that I think got everybody going in the whole building,” Bruins forward Marcus Johansson said. “It was fun to see. You can tell that you don’t want to get him mad. It was fun to see. It’s a big part of our game, being physical and he stepped up and got us all going.”
“We were playing pretty good at that time,” Bruins forward David Krejci said, “so it kept the momentum on our side and showed everyone that we don’t back down and continue to move forward no matter what the score is.”
“It’s a good, clean, hard hit,” Bruins forward Joakim Nordstrom said. “It certainly got us going a little bit more. The fans loved it too. They were loud, but I think that kind of jacked them up a little bit extra.”
After checking Thomas, Krug skated toward St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington and glared at him.
“It was more a stare,” Binnington said after the game. “His pupils were pretty big. I don’t know if he was on something, but he was pretty fired up. It was a big hit, big play and the rink was excited.”
Cassidy wasn’t expecting the Blues to go after Krug in Game 2.
“No, they’re a pretty honest team, St. Louis,” he said. “I think they’ll finish all their checks. Whether it’s (Krug’s) No. 47 or it’s (Matt) Grzelcyk or (Connor) Clifton, they’re going to play hard, but we expect that. So I don’t expect retaliation. If Torey’s in a bad spot, puts himself in a bad spot, they’re going to hit him. I think that’s what’s going to happen.”
Krug said the Bruins were ready for anything.
“If you want to play us run-and-gun style,” he said, “if you want to punch us in the mouth and look us in the eye, we’re willing to do that as well. We’re a team that adapts. We can play and win any style of hockey and we take a lot of pride in that.”
Entering Game 2, defensemen had scored 10 of Boston’s 61 playoff goals, including the first two in Game 1. Krug had only one goal, but he had 11 assists to tie Brad Marchand for the team high.
“We’ve talked all playoff long about us setting the pace back here on defense,” Krug said. “It starts with our breakouts. If we’re able to be clean out of our own zone, it allows us to set up that next wave of attack. It’s definitely a key for us.”