Bruins' Krejci believes goal drought is nearing end

MONTREAL -- The player who led the Stanley Cup Playoffs in scoring two of the past three years has failed to score a goal in his first 10 postseason games in 2014.

Boston Bruins center David Krejci, however, is confident his drought will end in the near future.

Krejci, who has three assists and is a team-worst minus-3 in the playoffs, will try to find the back of the net Monday when the Bruins play Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

The Bruins lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 and can advance to their second consecutive Eastern Conference Final with a win.

Krejci only has one point in the series. Lesser-known players like forwards Justin Florek, Matt Fraser and Jordan Caron have scored goals for the Bruins this playoff season while Krejci has continued to search for his first. He was the first one on the ice for the Bruins morning skate.

"It's good. When you are doing well then that's what you need in the playoffs. You need different guys to step up," Krejci said after the skate. "And I believe my time is about to come and I'm going to be big for my team. I owe it to these guys, so I'm going to do everything I can to start tonight."

During the Bruins' run to the Stanley Cup championship in 2011, Krejci led all scorers with 12 goals and 23 points. Last season the Bruins came up short in a six-game Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks. Krejci's 26 points in 22 games were still an NHL-high.

Krejci, the Bruins' leading scorer with 69 points (19 goals) in the regular season, wore an alternate captain's 'A' this season because his selflessness on the ice as an assist-first player equals his team-first attitude off the ice. In that light, coach Claude Julien isn't surprised Krejci feels indebted to his teammates.

"He's just a character guy. He's demanding of himself and you know he's been a good player for us all year," Julien said. "Just because he hasn't scored yet doesn't mean he doesn't care and he doesn't try. So you've got to work with those guys and try to help them to find solutions. But a lot of it has to come from them. And if he's that focused, that's a good sign for us."

Here are the projected lineups:

BRUINS

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser – Carl Soderberg – Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille – Gregory Campbell – Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara – Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski – Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug – Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask

Chad Johnson

Scratched: Jordan Caron, Andrej Meszaros, Corey Potter

Injured: Chris Kelly (back), Dennis Seidenberg (ACL/MCL), Adam McQuaid (ankle)

CANADIENS

Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher

Michael Bournival – Tomas Plekanec – Thomas Vanek

Rene Bourque – Lars Eller – Brian Gionta

Brandon Prust – Daniel Briere – Dale Weise

Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov – Alexei Emelin

Nathan Beaulieu – Mike Weaver

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

Scratched: Douglas Murray, Francis Bouillon, Jarred Tinordi, Ryan White, Travis Moen, George Parros

Injured: Alex Galchenyuk (lower body)