BOSTON – The biggest item on the agenda for Torey Krug on Wednesday night was returning to the Bruins lineup for the first time after suffering his first concussion since joining up with the Bruins six years ago.
Mission accomplished with Krug topping 22 minutes of ice time with zero lingering fogginess associated with the head injury.
“I felt good. I know it was a couple weeks, but I was actually able... I was far enough through the protocol that I was able to skate for a while,” said Krug. “So as far as rust was concerned it wasn’t too bad. [It was] more just timing and trying to get the right reads and overall felt pretty good.”
Krug missed six games and roughly two weeks after wearing an ugly minus-5 in the last game he played against Columbus back in mid-March, and he returned to some pretty cool honors while posting a pair of assists in Boston’s 6-3 win over the New York Rangers at TD Garden. It’s no coincidence that the Bruins racked up four power play goals in the PP quarterback’s return to the fold against the Rangers, and the two assists actually made Krug the most prolific U.S.-born player that’s ever suited up for the Boston Bruins.
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Krug’s 285 career points moved him past Craig Janney for tops all-time in Bruins franchise history among American players, and it leaves a lot of room for the puck-moving defenseman to keep padding those totals moving forward.
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That’s not too shabby for an undrafted, undersized college D-man in Krug who’s consistently had to prove he belongs at every step in his underrated hockey career.
“It’s special for sure. You know, with the rich history of the Boston Bruins to be a guy like that is pretty cool. But I don’t want to stop there,” said Krug, who has six goals, 50 points and a minus-2 rating in 60 games this season. “[You] just continue to help the team and, you know, hopefully we can just continue to win and that’s something that can be pushed aside and I can think about later on in my career.”
While there are always going to be detractors to Krug’s game given the defensive liabilities that go along with his 5-foot-9, 196-pound frame, there’s also no question that he’s one of the best offensive defensemen in Bruins history, and inarguably the best American-born D-man that’s ever suited up for the Black and Gold.
Krug showed all of that along with his tremendous value to a Bruins power play that struggled to score three PP goals in his six-game absence, and that’s something to be valued given how consistently productive he’s been since arriving in Boston.
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